Historically low mortgage interest rates have homeowners refinancing in record numbers, according to the latest Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey, released today by The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).

The MBA reports that its Market Composite Index, which measures mortgage loan application volume, shows the number of people applying to refinance their mortgage surged, climbing 25.6% while the purchase index fell 14.1% for the week ending January 9, 2009.

According to Quicken Loans Chief Economist Bob Walters, mortgage activity is poised for a sustained rally.

“Mortgage activity remains very strong, thanks primarily to historically low long-term interest rates,” Walters said. “Leading up to the recent application boom, we had seen demand driven by necessity – such as homeowners needing to refinance out of ARMs that were set to adjust higher. However, the latest boom is being led by consumers who may have been in good loans, but are looking to cut their rates, or payments, even further.

“Because of this, and the sheer number of people who stand to save considerably by refinancing their mortgages, I would expect this surge in activity to continue for a very long time.”

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 17th, 2009 at 2:57 am and is filed under Mortgage Loans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.