Mortgage Applications Spike

Daily Real Estate News April 21, 2010

Mortgage applications to buy homes rose 10.1 percent last week on a seasonally adjusted basis compared to the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association weekly survey.

On an unadjusted basis, the purchase index rose 11 percent compared with the previous week, but was down 5.2 percent from the same week a year ago.

“Purchase applications continued to increase coming out of the Easter holiday, as we approach the end of the home buyer tax credit, and are up modestly over last month.” said Michael Fratantoni, MBA’s vice president of research and economics.

Declining Treasury rates pushed loan rates down from the previous week:

30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.04 percent from 5.17 percent.
15-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 4.34 percent from 4.45 percent.
1-year ARMs decreased to 6.95 percent from 7.02 percent.

Source: Mortgage Bankers Association (04/21/2010)