Dive Brief:
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Fewer homebuyers applied for mortgages last week than during any other week since December 2000.
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The Mortgage Bankers Association said the volume of mortgage applications for home purchases and refinancing was down 7.2%. Also last week, fixed, 30-year mortgage interest rates rose from 4.25% to 4.27%.
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The number of loan requests for home purchases is a leading indicator of home sales.
Dive Insight:
The Labor Day holiday and the start of school could have slowed the influx of loan applications, some analysts say. Doug Duncan, chief economist at Fannie Mae, told MarketWatch he expects loan application activity to “bounce back.”