US Mortgage Application Form, Mixed Rates: MBA

NEW YORK (Reuters) – US consumers have filed fewer loan applications to buy and refinance homes, while housing loan costs have included 30-year mortgage rates unchanged this week, the company said on Wednesday. Mortgage Bankers Association.

The Washington-based industry group said its seasonally adjusted mortgage application index fell 2.5% to 329.5 in the week ending October 26th. It reached 322.1 two weeks earlier, which was the worst value since December 26, 2014.

Mortgage interest rates on 30-year bonds, with a balance of $ 453,100 or less, remained unchanged at 5.11%, the highest level since February 2011.

Other borrowing costs that MBA followed were both higher and lower than the previous week.

Chart: Interactive US Mortgages – tmsnrt.rs/1SQgDJa

The seasonally adjusted MBA loan application for home purchases, an approximation of future sales, declined 1.5% to 224.9 last week. It was close to 224.0, the lowest since February 2017, set two weeks earlier.

According to Joel Kan, assistant vice-president of economic and industrial forecasts for the MBA, the demand index was down on the previous year.

"The purchase requests may have been affected by the recent rate hike and the high stock market volatility observed over the last two weeks," Kan said in a statement.

Mortgage rates jumped this month at the same pace as US bond yields. US10YT = RR to worry about the rise in inflation and the rise in federal borrowing to finance a growing budget deficit.

Increased borrowing costs, disappointing corporate earnings, and trade tensions between China and the United States fueled the stock markets' defeat. The S & P 500 .SPX fell on Friday to its lowest level since early May.

Wall Street stock prices offset some of last week's losses.

The seasonally adjusted indicator for the group's refinancing applications fell 3.8% to 884.2 last week, staying above 838.1 two weeks ago, the lowest level ever since December 2000.