Refinancing activity in the U.S. housing market plummeted last week as mortgage rates hit their highest level in nine months, new industry data released on May 27 show.
Refinancing decreased by 18 percent for the week ending May 22 and is up by 19 percent from the same time a year ago, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
“Many borrowers understandably backed away from refinancing last week,”Joel Kan, the firm’s vice president and deputy chief economist, said in a statement.
The decline was largely driven by the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rising by 30 basis points over the past five weeks to 6.65 percent - the highest level since August 2025.
As Andrew Moran reports for The Epoch Times,activity to refinance home loans was spread across the board.Conventional refinance applications fell by 14 percent, Federal Housing Agency applications dropped 18 percent, and Veterans’ Affairs applications tumbled 34 percent.
Overall, refinance loans accounted for 38 percent of all mortgage applications, the smallest share in nearly a year.
But purchase applications also slipped from the previous week, sliding by almost 9 percent.
“Purchase applications were slightly lower across all loan types but still ran at a stronger pace than last year’s pace,” Kan said.
“The average loan size for a purchase application reached another survey high at $473,600, as borrowers with smaller loan sizes were less active given the higher rate environment and its negative impact on their purchasing power.”
Meanwhile, the Federal Housing Finance Agency reported on May 26 that single-family home prices backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac rose by 0.1 percent in March, up from a downwardly revised 0.1 percent drop in February.
Source: ZeroHedge News
