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Interest in refinancing mortgage lending increased at the beginning of the year, by 20% from the previous week.
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The increase in refinancing also led to an increase in demand for mortgage applications by 16.7% compared to the previous week, according to the latest survey by the Association for Mortgage Lenders.
The previous week’s results included an adjustment for the holiday.
The number of people planning to buy a home has risen by 8% in the past week.
“Tree refinancing activities in the first full week of 2021 led to mortgage applications rising to their highest level since March 2020, despite the fact that most mortgage rates in the survey rose last week,” said Joel Kan, MBA’s co – vice president of economic and industrial forecast, said. “The expectation of additional fiscal stimulus from the incoming government, and the deployment of vaccines that improve the outlook, have increased treasury yields and rates.”
HOME PRICES RISE MOST IN MORE THAN 6 YEARS
The refinancing share of mortgage activities increased to 74.8% of the total applications from 73.5% the previous week.
Mortgage and refinancing demand rose despite the thirty-year fixed mortgage rate rising by two basis points to 2.88%.
However, the fixed interest rate loan of 15 years decreased to 2.39%.
“The continued demand for housing has continued to support the growth of purchases, with an increase in activity of almost 10 percent from a year ago,” adds Kan. ‘The lower average loan balance is partly due to a 9.2 per cent increase in FHA applications, which is a positive sign of more lower incomes and first buyers returning to the market. ”
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The survey covers more than 75% of all U.S. household mortgage applications and has been conducted weekly since 1990.