Mortgage rates are rising again, but homebuyers are seeing some advantages
Mortgage rates continued their climb last week, but homebuyers trickled back into the market, perhaps taking advantage of less competition and some price...
Key points
- Mortgage rates continued their climb last week, but homebuyers trickled back into the market, perhaps taking advantage of less competition and some price cuts.
- That helped push total mortgage demand last week 1.9% higher compared with the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's seasonally adjusted index.
- As a result, refinance demand, which is highly sensitive to weekly rate moves, fell 2% for the week and was just 7% higher than the same week one year ago.
- Last year at this time, the average on the 30-year fixed loan was just 15 basis points higher.
What happened
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Mortgage rates continued their climb last week, but homebuyers trickled back into the market, perhaps taking advantage of less competition and some price cuts. That helped push total mortgage demand last week 1.9% higher compared with the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's seasonally adjusted index. As a result, refinance demand, which is highly sensitive to weekly rate moves, fell 2% for the week and was just 7% higher than the same week one year ago. Last year at this time, the average on the 30-year fixed loan was just 15 basis points higher. Applications for a mortgage to purchase a home rose 6% for the week and were 0.2% higher year over year -- basically flat. "Incoming data showed that inflation dropped in June, but with oil prices spiking again, that improvement seems unlikely to continue in July data, and mortgage rates are likely to remain higher as a result." Mortgage rates moved even higher to start this week, matching their last high from mid-May, according to a separate survey from Mortgage News Daily.