Housing News

Interest in Buying a Home Rises to Highest Level Since April

With prospective homebuyers finding it a little easier to find a house thanks to inventory finally rising, interest in buying a home is now at the highest level in four months.

According to a new report from the Mortgage Bankers Association, purchase mortgage applications rose 7% in the week ending September 10 to the highest level since April 2021, indicating that more people are trying to buy a home now than they have at any point in the last four months.

The report showed that overall mortgage applications increased 0.3% from the week earlier, with refinance applications decreasing by 3%.

Purchase applications, on the other hand, increased by a good amount.

"Purchase applications - after adjusting for the impact of Labor Day - increased over 7% last week to their highest level since April 2021,” said Joel Kan, MBA's Associate Vice President of Economic and Industry Forecasting. “Compared to the same week last September, which was right in the middle of a significant upswing in home purchases, applications were down 11% - the smallest year-over-year decline in 14 weeks.”

According to Kan, conventional and government purchase applications both increased in the last week, with the average loan size for a purchase application rising to $396,800.

“The very competitive purchase market continues to put upward pressure on sales prices,” Kan noted.

Meanwhile, refinance applications fell to their slowest pace since early July, Kan said. Beyond that, the refinance share of mortgage applications fell to 65%, which is also the lowest that figure has been since July.