Florida Home Mortgage Loan Applications Decline

Applications for Florida mortgages fell last week for the first time in three weeks, weighed by a sharp drop in demand for home-purchase and refinancing loans, an industry group said Wednesday.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index fell 5.5 percent to 641.1 in the week ending August 17.

Applications, however, may have climbed earlier in August as a major Florida mortgage lender hurt by turmoil in financial markets closed its doors, forcing many borrowers to apply again elsewhere.

“The drop in applications we see here may be an indication that those borrowers have now been taken care of,” said Jay Brinkmann, a vice president of research at the MBA.

The seasonally adjusted index of applications for Florida home loan refinancing dropped 6.4 percent last week as rates inched higher.

The MBA’s purchase index, a gauge of home loan requests for home purchases, slipped five percent to 441.5 as the housing market remains stagnant.

The four-week moving average for the Florida mortgage application index, which helps ease out the more volatile week-to-week ratings, is up 1.3 percent.

Fixed 30-year Florida mortgage rates averaged 6.49 percent last week, excluding fees, up from 6.45 percent the previous week.

Mortgage rates remain near their year-ago levels, which is right around when the impact of the housing market slump began to be pronounced.

SOURCE: Reuters