Inman

Demand for refis surges

Applications for mortgage were up a seasonally adjusted 8.2 percent last week, even though demand for purchase loans sagged, the Mortgage Bankers Association said in releasing the results of its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey.

Requests for purchase loans were down a seasonally adjusted 1.8 percent from one week earlier for the week ending Oct. 30, the MBA said. The decrease was more than offset by a 14.5 percent increase in applications for refinancings, which accounted for 66.1 percent of all loan requests.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 4.97 percent from 5.04 percent, with points decreasing to 1.01 from 1.25 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans.

The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 4.33 percent from 4.53 percent, with points increasing to 1.33 from 0.78 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 6.83 percent from 6.79 percent, with points increasing to 0.31 from 0.29 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 6.1 percent from 6.9 percent of total applications from the previous week.

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