Mortgage rates continue to hover at yearly lows, but home buyers aren’t flocking to lock in the rates. Applications for mortgages dropped 6.6 percent last week for both home purchases and refinances, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported for the week ending Oct. 24.

Broken out, refinancing applications dropped 7.4 percent last week, while applications for home purchases, viewed as a gauge of future home sales, continued its drop, falling 5 percent last week. Last week, home purchase applications had fallen by another 5 percent and were about 9 percent from year-ago levels, the MBA reported. 

Meanwhile, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage continues to stay low by historical standards. The average rate nationwide was 4.13 percent week, up 3 basis points from 4.10 percent the week prior, according to the MBA’s survey, which reflects about 75 percent of the U.S. retail residential mortgage application market.

Source: Reuters