Rising Interest Rates Cut Mortgage Demand in Half at the Start of June

Total mortgage application volume dropped by 52.7% year-over-year last week as rapidly rising interest rates slash refinance demand from prospective buyers. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances rose from 5.40% to 5.65% last week, and the average rate rose even higher to 6.28% this week.

The latest mortgage rate hurdle caused only a slight uptick in mortgage applications as buyers begin to pull back from home sales in the first phases of what some experts say could be a long and drawn out market deceleration, CNBC reports.

“Mortgage rates increased faster than at any point in history. We could be facing years, not months, of fewer home sales, and Redfin still plans to thrive. If falling from $97 per share to $8 doesn’t put a company through heck, I don’t know what does,” wrote Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman on the company’s website.

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