The Mortgage Bankers Association says that for the week ending September 10, the number of mortgage applications decreased by a seasonally-adjusted 8.9 percent, mostly due to significant drops in mortgage refinancing. It was the second consecutive weekly drop.
While applications by those moving into a new home dropped just 0.4 percent on a seasonally-adjusted basis, the raw numbers showed a significant drop-off compared with last week. The unadjusted purchase index plummeted nearly 22 percent compared with last week and nearly 40 percent when compared with the same week last year.
Last week, the seasonally-adjusted purchase index had increased 6.3 percent.
A significant increase in the number of homes sold to moving families is not currently expected by many analysts. Reuters reports that based on poor reports from the second quarter, Fannie Mae is predicting that the total number of homes sales this year will show a 7.4 percent drop compared with 2009. Last month, the company had predicted a 0.8 percent increase.
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