The 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage fell for the second week in a row to 6.67%, which MBA vice president and deputy chief economist Joel Kan observed was now almost 50 basis points lower than the recent peak of 7.16% recorded a month ago.
Read more: October sees 29% drop in new home mortgage applications
“The decrease in mortgage rates should improve the purchasing power of prospective homebuyers, who have been largely sidelined as mortgage rates have more than doubled in the past year,” Kan said. “As a result of the drop in mortgage rates, both purchase and refinance applications picked up slightly last week. However, refinance activity is still more than 80% below last year’s pace.”
With the decline in rates, the adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of applications saw its own dip in volume to just 8.8% of loans last week. This was down from “the range of 10% and 12% during the past two months” according to Kan.
Refinancing took a larger share of mortgage activity in the week ending November 18, 2022, increasing to 28.4% of total applications from the 27.6% it held the previous week.