US Home Mortgage Refinancing Activity Hits 2.5-Month High

US application activity to refinance a mortgage climbed to its highest level since mid-December as 30-year home borrowing costs declined to their lowest in 6 weeks, Mortgage Bankers Association data released on Wednesday showed.

Interest rates on 30-year, fixed-rate conforming mortgages, the most widely held type of US home loan, averaged 4.30%, down from 4.36% the prior week. It was up about 0.5% from a year earlier.

Conforming loans are those with balances of $424,100 or less and qualify for guarantees from federal mortgage agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Last week, mortgage rates fell in step with benchmark US Treasury yields, which dropped to 5-week lows on political worries about Europe and a soft batch of US economic data.

Mortgage rates on other types of home loans that the MBA tracks were broadly lower from the prior week.

The share of refinancing applications fell to its smallest since November 2008 at 45.1% in the latest week from 46.2%, the Washington-based industry group said.

The MBA’s seasonally adjusted gauge on purchase application activity, a proxy for future home sales, rebounded from its lowest level since November. It was up 6.5% from the prior week at 231.0.

The group’s barometer on overall mortgage activity on a seasonally adjusted basis rose 5.8% in the latest week to 392.9.

For an interactive Graphic on US mortgages, click: here 

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  applications, home, mba, mortgage, rated, rates, refinancing

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Paul Ebeling

Paul A. Ebeling, polymath, excels in diverse fields of knowledge. Pattern Recognition Analyst in Equities, Commodities and Foreign Exchange and author of “The Red Roadmaster’s Technical Report” on the US Major Market Indices™, a highly regarded, weekly financial market letter, he is also a philosopher, issuing insights on a wide range of subjects to a following of over 250,000 cohorts. An international audience of opinion makers, business leaders, and global organizations recognizes Ebeling as an expert.

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