Mortgages: Applications for Mortgages Dip as Rates Climb Further

Mortgage rates again fell to record low levels during the week, according to Freddie Mac on Thursday. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Applications for mortgages, including those for refinancing, dipped in mid-January as rates climbed.

Mortgage application activity fell 13 percent in the week ending Jan. 21, according to the seasonally-adjusted Refinance Index of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).

Applications for mortgage refinancing fell even more, plunging 15.3 percent during the same time period, reaching the lowest point since January of last year.

New mortgages as well as mortgage refinancing have become less attractive following climbing mortgage rates, as mortgage rates edged up for the third straight week.

Conventional 30-year mortgages saw an average interest rate of 4.80 percent, Freddie Mac announced on Thursday, up from the average rate of 4.74 percent the week prior.

The average rate for 15-year mortgages was 4.09 percent, a slight increase from 4.05 percent last week.

“Mortgage rates [were] a little higher this week amid positive data reports from The Conference Board that suggest the economy is strengthening,” Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist Frank Nothaft said in a statement.

The upward trend in mortgage rates has rolled over into the new year after rates reached all-time lows in November. A Nov. 11 Primary Mortgage Market Survey report from Freddie Mac pegged the 30-year average mortgage rate at the time at 4.17 percent and the 15-year average rate at 3.57 percent.