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Home Loan Demand at One-Year High
By Reuters
U.S. mortgage applications rose last week, with demand
hitting its highest level in nearly a year as interest
rates hovered near recent lows, an industry group said
Wednesday.
The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally
adjusted index of mortgage applications, which includes
both purchase and refinance loans, for the week ended
Nov. 9 increased 5.5 percent to 707.3, its highest since
the week ended Dec. 8, 2006, when it touched 721.2.
Economists say that this data has been skewed in recent
months, however, as prospective borrowers have been filing
multiple applications to obtain a single loan due to
widespread tightening of lending standards.
The MBA's data also counts all applications, including
borrowers who are ultimately denied.
Borrowing costs on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, excluding
fees, averaged 6.19 percent, up 0.03 percentage point
from the previous week. Two weeks prior, interest rates
reached 6.15 percent, the lowest since the week ended
May 11, when they stood at 6.13 percent.
Interest rates were above the year-ago level of 6.15
percent.
Fixed 15-year mortgage rates averaged 5.77 percent,
unchanged from the previous week. Rates on one-year adjustable-rate
mortgages (ARMs) increased to 5.98 percent from 5.94
percent.
Overall mortgage applications last week were 9.2 percent
above their year-ago level. The four-week moving average
of mortgage applications, which smoothes the volatile
weekly figures, rose 1.9 percent to 679.0.
Demand for both home purchase and refinancing loans
rose last week.
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