• Prior -12.6%
• Market index 174.9 vs 224.0 prior
• Purchase index 136.7 vs 157.1 prior
• Refinance index 395.1 vs 617.5 prior
• 30-year mortgage rate 6.97% vs 6.75% prior

Just be mindful that this accounts for two weeks of changes, that being in the week to 20 December and also the week to 27 December. The benchmark is to that of the week to 13 December here. Still, a surge in the average rate of the most popular US home loan did send applications tumbling but also as it comes during one of the quieter periods in the year. The refinance index especially saw a major fall to back to its lowest since December last year:

This article was written by Justin Low at www.forexlive.com.