Bye-bye refis? Boom tails off

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Demand for home loans is slipping a bit now that the average interest rate for traditional fixed-rate loans is back above the psychological trigger of 5%.

The latest survey by the Mortgage Bankers Assn., out today, shows that applications for home loans fell more than 12% last week. Applications to refinance homes were off by more than 16% compared with the previous week. Applications to buy homes were down more than 5%, the trade group said.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages during the week that ended Friday was 5.04%, down slightly from 5.07% a week earlier. As always in the Mortgage Bankers Assn. survey, the figure was for loans of up to 80% of the appraised property value. The trade group said that points paid up front (including the origination fee) were averaging 1.25% of the loan value, up from 1.13% a week earlier.

-- E. Scott Reckard