Mortgage refinance and purchase applications rose last week despite flat interest rates.
Mortgage applications increased 4.9 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending April 13.
The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 4.9 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier.
The Refinance Index increased 4 percent from the previous week.
The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 37.6 percent of total applications, the lowest share since September 2008, from 38.4 percent the previous week.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($453,100 or less) remained unchanged at 4.66 percent.
The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages remained unchanged at 4.08 percent.
"Rates were roughly flat compared to last week, as the downward pressure of geopolitical uncertainty offset the upward pressure of higher inflation and Fed minutes that signaled greater certainty of rate hikes this year," Joel Kan, an MBA economist, told CNBC.
To be sure, the median U.S. home took just 81 days to sell in 2017, according to a report Tuesday by Zillow Group Inc. That’s nine days faster than in 2016, a new land speed record since Zillow started keeping track in 2010, and a fresh source of stress for buyers, Bloomberg reported. And it includes the closing, which can take four to six weeks, leaving only about 30 days on the market for many homes.
The trend continues in the latest data from Zillow, for January.
A robust job market has been fueling demand, and jacking up prices, even as mortgage rates climb and the number of available homes shrinks. Inventory has fallen for 37 months in a row, year on year, Zillow reports. The housing crunch on the West Coast has gotten so bad (and so awesome for sellers) that the granny flat is making a comeback.
Buying a home “has become an exercise in speed and agility,” Zillow Senior Economist Aaron Terrazas writes in the report. “This is shaping up to be another competitive home-shopping season for buyers, who may have to linger on the market until they find the right home but then sprint across the finish line once they do.”
(Newsmax wire services contributed to this report).
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