Applications For Mortgages Up Sharply This Week

U.S. mortgage applications rose for the second straight week as benchmark mortgage interest rates on home loans tumbled to their lowest since May.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage applications for the week ending on September 7 increased by a significant 5.5 percent to 657.4.

Borrowing costs on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages - the industry benchmark home loan product - averaged 6.25 percent, down 0.17 percent.

Those rates do not include origination fees, or points. This is the lowest 30-year home loan rate since the 6.23 percent posted during the week ending May 18.

Yields on benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury notes, which are linked closely to the nation’s mortgage rates consumers pay, fell substantially last week on raised expectations of a rate cut from the Federal Reserve.

The next Fed policy-making meeting is scheduled for September 18.

The MBA’s seasonally adjusted home purchase loan index rose 5.2 percent to 448.0. The purchase index is considered a timely gauge of U.S. home sales.

The group’s seasonally adjusted index of mortgage refinance applications showed a similar jump in increasing 6 percent to 1,876.6.

SOURCE: Reuters