{"id":878226,"date":"2026-10-11T05:16:32","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T05:16:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/878226\/"},"modified":"2026-10-11T05:16:32","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T05:16:32","slug":"mortgage-applications-down-as-rates-head-up-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/878226\/","title":{"rendered":"Mortgage applications down as rates head up \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fewer Americans are seeking to borrow money to buy homes as mortgage rates<\/a> continue to climb.<\/p>\n

Mortgage applications were down 4.2% across the United States for the week ending Oct. 2, according to the latest survey<\/a> by the Mortgage Bankers Association that uses seasonally adjusted data.<\/p>\n

\u201cMortgage rates moved to their highest level in almost three years last week,\u201d Joel Kan, the association\u2019s vice president and deputy chief economist, said Wednesday, noting the jump \u201chas caused many potential borrowers to step back from the purchase market.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, better known as Freddie Mac, posted a 7.4% weekly average rate<\/a> for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage Thursday. Up 0.12 percentage points from the prior week, the weekly rate is the highest since November 2023.<\/p>\n

Kan said very few current homeowners \u201chave an incentive to refinance at these rates.\u201d The association\u2019s index for refinancing applications showed an even larger drop from the previous week, 8%, and was down 56% from the same week one year ago.<\/p>\n

\"\"New homes and apartments in the South Jordan area on Monday, Aug. 24, 2026. | Scott G Winterton <\/p>\n

More buyers are opting for adjustable-rate mortgages to initially lower their payments, Kan said.<\/p>\n

Commonly called ARMs, they now account for just over 10% of all mortgage applications, according to the association. That\u2019s the highest share in about a year and up from 7% at the beginning of 2026, Realtor.com reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For a mortgage that starts with a set rate for five years and then is annually adjusted up or down to align with current market conditions, the association put the average rate at 6.43% for the week ending Oct. 2, more than a percentage point lower than a fixed-rate loan.<\/p>\n

Some buyers priced out of fixed-rate borrowing still can afford the lower initial payments available through the once popular<\/a> adjustable-rate mortgage, Realtor.com senior economist Hannah Jones said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIncreasingly, it may simply be the only way some buyers can enter the market at all,\u201d Jones said. She calculated about a $178 reduction in the monthly principle and interest payment on a $400,000 home with 20% down and financed through an ARM, based on recent rates.<\/p>\n

However, as many buyers learned during the 2008 financial crisis<\/a>, monthly payments may not remain affordable after the rates begin adjusting. Then, rate resets pushed a typical borrower\u2019s monthly payment up by nearly $580 in today\u2019s dollars, Realtor.com said.<\/p>\n

Although homebuyers using an adjustable-rate mortgage will save money initially that can be used to cushion the impact of future mortgage rate increases, Jones said they need to understand just how much higher their payments could be under their loan terms.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan your budget absorb a significant jump in your monthly mortgage payment?\u201d she said. \u201cIf not, the ARM may not be the right product for you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fewer Americans are seeking to borrow money to buy homes as mortgage rates continue to climb. Mortgage applications…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":878227,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,101,5817,8793],"class_list":["post-878226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-news-division","tag-news-feed-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=878226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/878227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=878226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=878226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}