Step Inside The Market - Week 14, 2023

Happy Friday!

For all of our readers who are celebrating one of the holidays taking place this weekend, we wish you and your family happiness and good health!

In this week’s recap, we will be focusing on trends with rates, applications, demand and some updates on home prices.

🙌 The average 30 year fixed rate for a conforming loan, per FRED, decreased to 6.28% from 6.32%, continuing a downward trend of rates this year.

😔 However, even with rates continuing to come down, overall mortgage applications dropped by 4.1% week over week. Purchase application are down 4%, while refinance application are down 5%

🏠 A potential driver of the decrease in purchase applications is likely driven by an overall lack of home listings. New listings are down 20% YoY and total inventory is down about 50% from pre-pandemic levels.

🛧 Additionally, over the last week we saw a slight increase in home prices, which were up by .16% week over week but are still 2.6% below the highs of June 2022.

We would also like to bring your attention to the trends happening in the Government Loan space. Overall applications for these products are down by 8.4% week over week, which may spell future difficulties for first-time homebuyers and those without large savings to tap into.