Home Purchase Loan Demand Steady as Refis Sink
(CNBC.com/Reuters) — Time is running out for home buyers seeking tax credits of up to $8,000, with purchase contracts needing to be signed by the end of this month and loans closed by the end of June.
With just a month to cash in on the tax incentive, which is designed to infuse life into a fragile housing market, demand for mortgages to buy homes eked out a 0.2 percent seasonally adjusted rise in the week ended April 2, the trade group said.
But applications for refinancing slumped 16.9 percent, pushing the trade group’s mortgage market index of total applications down 11 percent.
The average 30-year mortgage rate shot up by more than a quarter percentage point to 5.31 percent, a nearly eight-month high and well above the 4.61 percent record low a year ago.
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