Home mortgage applications drop

The Mortgage Bankers Association recently reported that after experiencing a 13% surge in mortgage applications, the mortgage market lost steam with applications dropping 5.9%.  While homeowners rushed to refinance earlier in the month, that trend reversed itself, with the refinance index and purchase index falling 7.2% and 2.8%, respectively,

The four-week moving averages for the market index and the refinance index are up 0.4% and 0.8%, respectively, while the seasonally adjusted purchase index is down 0.7%.  Refinancing activity cooled as the refinance share of mortgage activity fell to 69.2% of total applications from 70% the previous week. In addition, the adjustable-rate mortgage share of activity fell to 5.9% from 6.1% the prior week.