Mortgage rates for fixed-rate mortgage inched up for the third straight week, and the rise was accompanied by a drop in refinancing applications, according to separate reports by Freddie Mac and the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).
Conventional 30-year and 15-year fixed-rate mortgage rates edged up to 4.46 percent and 3.81 percent respectively, up from last week’s averages of 4.40 percent and 3.77 percent.
The rise marked the third-week-in-a-row that mortgage rates climbed, as separate data showed that homeowners were spurning refinancing because of the higher rates.
The MBA’s Refinance Index fell by 21.6 percent for the week ending Nov. 26, which was its third-week-in-a-row the index had dropped.
However, new homeowners were busy in the housing market as the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index climbed slightly by 1.1 percent and was at its highest since May.
The percentage of mortgage activity due to refinancing applications plummeted to 74.9 percent, down from 78.6 percent for the Thanksgiving holiday week.
Earlier this month, an S&P/Case-Shiller index report said that house prices were continually dropping, albeit less than in previous months.
“The 12-month growth rate in the S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city index eased from 1.7 percent in August to 0.6 percent in September,” Frank Nothaft, chief economist and vice president of Freddie Mac, said in a statement.
