As applications for home loans dropped last week, the average loan size continued to break records.
The number hit $370,200 last week, an all-time high for the Mortgage Bankers Association’s weekly survey, which has been running since 1990. The previous record of $368,600 was set a week earlier.
Also last week, an index tracking the weekly volume of mortgage applications to buy homes dropped 1 percent, seasonally adjusted.
The Mortgage Bankers Association metric, known as the purchase index, still posted a year-over-year increase in the second week of September, its 17th consecutive week of annual growth.
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MBA’s index of refinancing activity also fell from the previous week, declining by a seasonally adjusted 4 percent. The volume of refi applications was still up 30 percent year-over-year, however.
Joel Kan, the trade association’s head of industry forecasting, attributed the drop in demand for home loans to borrowers anticipating a further drop in rates. But he said the underlying trends remain strong.
The average rate for 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages was unchanged last week at a historically low 3.07 percent, while jumbo rates ticked up one basis point to 3.41 percent.
MBA’s index tracking all home loans for the week dropped 2.5 percent, adjusted, last week. MBA’s survey covers 75 percent of the residential mortgage market.