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Vacant home rates increased nationwide in 2023 over the prior year, and these properties are empty for many reasons beyond simply being uninhabitable, a LendingTree study said.As a result, it is unclear on the impact making these available would have on reducing the inventory shortage.Just over 5.6 million units were sitting vacant during the period covered by the study in the nation's top 50 metro areas. This translates to a vacancy rate of 7.37%, up from 7.22% during 2022.More than half of those houses are vacant because they are waiting to be rented or are used only during part of the year; specifically 27.9% were empty because they're for rent, while 20.73% are only occupied part time for seasonal, recreational or occasional uses."Remember, just because there are millions of homes sitting vacant across the nation's 50 largest metros, that doesn't mean that the U.S. has an overabundance of housing,." said Jacob Channel, LendingTree senior economist and the author of the report."On the contrary, given the reasons why homes tend to sit vacant — and that vacancies tend to only be temporary — there isn't much reason to conclude that the nation's housing supply is anything but insufficient in the face of homebuyer and renter demand."Single-family rental properties are a hot button issue for consumer advocates, as well as the presidential campaign of Kamala Harris, who in August took aim at corporate ownership in a policy speech.New Orleans has the highest vacancy rate in the nation, at 14.5%, with the most common reason attributed to units being used to rent that are not occupied at the time. That is the case for just under one-quarter of the empty homes in that city.Seasonal or recreational use were the reasons for the vacancies in the Nos. 2 and 3 cities of Miami and Tampa.While "for rent" was cited as the reason in only five of the top 10 cities when it came to vacancy rates, it was the most cited cause, including for all but one metro area from slots 24 to 50."With home prices as high as they are, it may seem strange that so many homes in the nation's largest metros are sitting empty," Channel wrote.But "many nuanced factors" are used in setting home prices. These include the location, the mortgage rate, the size of the property, why the home is not occupied and how long it is empty."Why a home is empty is just as important as the fact that it's empty, if not more," he continued. "Only by analyzing the reasons behind a vacancy can you understand the relationship between housing prices and vacancy rates."While the vacancy rate on its own isn't nuanced enough to fully explain why homes are so expensive, that doesn't mean it can't help shed light on how an area's housing market is fairing, Channel said.Foreclosed homes, which also have been described as zombie properties, do not seem to be a major issue when it comes to vacancy share. Only three cities show vacancy rates exceeding 1% due to foreclosures: St. Louis, 1.48%; Chicago, 1.38%; and Richmond, Virginia, 1.14%, while Pittsburgh, it is at 0.9%.

Mr. Cooper is making management changes that put more emphasis on technology and add to a restructuring trend among publicly-traded housing finance companies.The changes start with Chief Information Officer Sridhar Sharma, who has served in that position for the last decade. His new titles will include chief innovation and digital officer. He also advances to become an executive vice president at the company.Sharma was a key player in the development of Pyro AI, a patented technology at Mr. Cooper that digitizes data from documents. He is also responsible for the company's larger digital platform that interfaces with borrowers and handles recapture operations.The expansion of his position is significant in part because retention and recapture of customers have become more of a recent focus for mortgage companies due to a shifting rate environment.Mr. Cooper also named Jeff Carroll chief technology officer. Carroll was previously the senior vice president of platform and cloud engineering at global travel platform Sabre. His work included modernizing and streamlining Sabre's platform, user experience and security.In addition, the company appointed two new senior vice presidents to work on developing the company's data strategy and governance models.Prerna Kandhari will focus on data engineering. Kandhari most recently served as director of software engineering at Capital One.David Graham, a managing director at Royal Bank of Canada with oversight over operational risk, is set to become responsible for data governance at Mr. Cooper."Our technology teams have done exceptional work to elevate and evolve the homeownership experience while driving Mr. Cooper to the forefront of the industry," Chairman and CEO Jay Bray said in a press release. "The team's depth of experience and passion for discovering new and innovative solutions will truly transform the mortgage space."The management restructuring comes amid speculation that competition between Mr. Cooper and another player that's been more focused on digital operations is heating up.Keefe, Bruyette and Woods analysts have opined that a new strategic partnership competitor Rocket Mortgage entered into has "a slightly negative read-through to the large subservicers," including Mr. Cooper and Pennymac. (Pennymac also recently made a C-suite change.)However, Rocket's Chief Business Officer Bill Banfield indicated its partnership is not a signal of deepening involvement in the subservicing strength on the order of larger players like Mr. Cooper already in the space."We do not have a desire to be a standalone subservicer and compete with many of the firms that are out there that are low-cost providers in the space," he said in a recent interview. "We are looking to grow our portfolio and really focus in on what we describe as the flywheel. So, for certain strategic and meaningful partnerships where we can help them with retention, that's what we would be looking to do."Rocket also has been beefing up the AI talent in its executive ranks. It recently recruited Papanii Okai, the former chief technology officer from digital payments provider Venmo, to serve as executive vice president of product engineering.Analysts generally consider Mr. Cooper's core competency to be servicing, while Rocket has long been viewed as the quintessential online lender. Back in the days when it was known as Quicken Loans, Rocket was seen as having ushered in the digital mortgage era with a 2016 Super Bowl commercial for the technology it's now named after.

Chip Chipman/Bloomberg The Federal Housing Finance Agency introduced two new datasets to provide industry insights into manufactured housing, as consumers increasingly show they are amenable to factory-built units. Released quarterly, the new House Price Index and median cost report for manufactured homes will dive deeper into research of conventional mortgages acquired by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The agency oversees both government-sponsored enterprises."FHFA's new data resource on manufactured homes provides relevant, up-to-date information on an important but less-understood segment of the housing market," said FHFA Director Sandra Thompson, in a press statement. "In a housing market with elevated home prices, manufactured housing remains an affordable option. This new data should help advance discussions on responsible efforts to expand homeownership opportunities."In the first release, the index increased 3.2% in the second quarter compared to the first three months of 2024. The index also surged 7.9% year over year. Reported numbers include both purchase-only data and research that adds refinance transactions into calculations. FHFA data includes price changes since 2000. The median cost of a manufactured home also came in at $231,000 in the second quarter, FHFA reported. The number inched up 0.4% from $230,000 one year earlier. FHFA holds median manufactured housing price data dating back to early 1985.The agency plans to release subsequent datasets each quarter alongside FHFA's long-standing House Price Index, which gives an overview of single-family home values across the United States. It anticipates releasing third-quarter numbers on Nov. 26. The development aligns with recent Department of Housing and Urban Development policy moves that put pieces in place for potential growth of the manufactured housing industry as the federal government attempts to ease affordability and supply challenges. Earlier this year, HUD made monetary investments to help preserve existing properties as well.The latest FHFA indices follow the arrival of two other research tools the agency launched over the past month to assist investors and other stakeholders with data that inform decision-making. The climate-risk dashboard, released in early September, offers users the opportunity to identify which loans and properties face the greatest threats of natural disasters. The agency followed that release with a new interactive dashboard providing details about multifamily loans the government-sponsored enterprises acquire.FHFA's new look into factory-built housing data comes at the same time public awareness and sentiment about the manufactured-home industry grows.A new study from real estate platform The Amherst Group this week showed 90% of consumers holding at least some favorable views of modular homes, a type of unit with components built offsite and later placed on a permanent foundation. More than four out of five Americans, or 81%, also said they would be open to living in modular homes, while 70% said they would welcome more alternative types of properties in their communities. "While the offsite construction process has been around for decades, it has yet to be adopted as a mainstream way to generate high-quality housing supply at scale. As a result, homebuilding remains overdue for disruption and innovation," Amherst Chairman and CEO Sean Dobson said in a press release. "Amid ongoing supply constraints in the U.S., we think modular construction is an important part of the solution," he added. In Amherst's survey of 1,000 people, nearly 60% of respondents also indicated they didn't care how builders constructed a home if the process had high quality standards and met price and location preferences. A majority also cited fast construction times compared to traditional stick-built homes and flexibility in design as appealing aspects of modular units. Many Americans, though, hold inaccurate views of modular construction. While awareness of this type of housing is growing, with two-thirds of consumers indicating they were somewhat familiar with it, 44% also thought units could move to new foundations, like mobile homes can. 

In the mortgage rate world, it’s sometimes a game of inches.This can be true for both prospective home buyers and existing homeowners looking for rate relief.Granted, if you’re that marginal when it comes to affording a home, maybe you should consider renting until it’s a little more decisive.But if you already own a home and hold a high mortgage rate, the next six months or so could make or break your refinance opportunity.Lately, mortgage rates have retraced from their recent lows of just over 6%, returning to levels around 6.625%.As a result, many millions of homeowners are no longer “in the money” for a refinance. But that could change in an instant, just as it already has.Are Current Mortgage Rates at Least 0.75% Below Your Rate?A new report from ICE revealed that the refinance population climbed to over 4.3 million thanks to the rally in rates that came to an abrupt end, ironically after the Fed cut rates.At that time, the 30-year fixed mortgage was averaging around 6.125%, down from nearly 7% as recently as late July.That meant the refinanceable population had surged from around 1.2 million to 4.3 million in a matter of less than two months.Of these 4.3M, a whopping 65% received their mortgages over the past two years, including 1.4M in 2023 and 1.3M this year. So that whole date the rate, marry the house thing could actually pan out.ICE considers a homeowner “in the money” for a rate and term refinance if their existing mortgage rate is at least 0.75% below prevailing market rates.So basically any borrower with a 7%+ rate would have met that definition in mid-September.But today it’s only the borrowers with mortgage rates around 7.5% that would benefit from a refi.If you want to get more into the nitty-gritty, highly-qualified refinance candidates should have a 720+ FICO score and a loan-to-value ratio (LTV) of 80% or less.Of course, conditions can change quickly. And as I wrote the other day, mortgage rates don’t move up or down in a straight line.Meaning the recent uptick could just be a temporary hiccup and short-lived. Mortgage rates saw periods of relief on the way up. They could just as well see periods of pain on the way down.The Refi Boom Depends on Rates Continuing Lower Into 2025As you can see, even minimal rate changes can impact millions of homeowners looking for payment relief.The good news is ICE expects 30-year fixed mortgage rates to continue coming down into the last months of the year and 2025. For the record, I agree with them.Their latest estimate, calculated using the single-day spread between the loan balance weighted average APR futures price and simple average daily rate, has the 30-year down to 5.85% by March 2025.Granted it also has the 30-year fixed at 6.17% for October 2024, so some recent adjustments may have not been captured by their time-sensitive report.But as noted, it’s good to zoom out anyway, and pay less attention to the day-to-day or even week-to-week noise.A lot can happen in a few days, and we’ve got two big reports coming tomorrow and Friday, the CPI report and PPI report.Both could push rates back onto their downward trajectory. They could also push rates higher…If ICE’s predictions hold true longer-term, there will be a nice little refi boom for loan officers and mortgage brokers in early 2025.Rates may also approach that so-called magic number of 5.5%, at which point you’d get more home buyers entering the market too, perhaps just in time for spring.This is the bullish case for the mortgage market, but still very much up in the air. You can see just how fickle it all is with even a .125% or .25% difference in rate potentially affecting millions.Read on: The refinance rule of thumb. Before creating this site, I worked as an account executive for a wholesale mortgage lender in Los Angeles. My hands-on experience in the early 2000s inspired me to begin writing about mortgages 18 years ago to help prospective (and existing) home buyers better navigate the home loan process. Follow me on Twitter for hot takes.Latest posts by Colin Robertson (see all)

Hurricane Milton, currently a Category 4 storm, is expected to make landfall on Florida's west coast Wednesday night or early Thursday, potentially affecting hundreds of thousands of homes in the Tampa Bay and Sarasota areas. The National Hurricane Center calls it an "extremely dangerous major hurricane," prompting evacuation orders for millions.Half a million single-family and multifamily homes with a reconstruction cost value of $123 billion are at potential risk of storm surge damage, according to Corelogic's report published Tuesday. This prediction is based on Milton making landfall as a Category 3 hurricane. "Hurricane Milton forecasts currently indicate a direct landfall over Tampa Bay as a Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 125 mph," said Jon Schneyer, director of catastrophe response at Corelogic, Tuesday. "Small changes in the exact landfall location will have monumental consequences on the financial impact of this storm."If Milton hits Florida as a Category 1 hurricane, an estimated 225,000 homes with a combined replacement cost value of $55 billion could be at risk. Should the storm remain a Category 4 hurricane, close to 700,000 homes with a RCV of $174 billion could be threatened. "A direct landfall, or one just north of Tampa Bay, would be a worst-case scenario because the winds and storm surge flooding would be most intense. A more southern landfall would reduce the impact in Tampa Bay but devastate communities along the coast near Sarasota," Schneyer added.Projected insured losses could total $60 billion to $100 billion if Milton makes direct landfall on Tampa, Morningstar DBRS, a credit rating agency, wrote Wednesday. That would be on par with losses from Hurricane Katrina, which reached $100 billion in today's dollars.However, if the hurricane's projected path is south of Tampa Bay, insured losses may land between $30 billion to $60 billion, Morningstar said.The credit rating agency predicts the hurricane's "destructive path will likely stretch far beyond the Florida coastline…and will also affect other major urban areas, including Orlando.""The damage caused by recent storms, including Hurricane Helene, will compound the losses in regions still battling with recovery efforts," it added.Almost one week prior, Hurricane Helene battered parts of the Southeast, including Florida. Total insured wind and flood losses are predicted to be between $10.5 billion and $17.5 billion, according to Corelogic's most recent report. Earlier estimates had placed the cost of insured damages between $3 billion and $5 billion.

Did those higher mortgage rates ruin your plans to refinance your mortgage?Well, there might be a temporary solution to save some money while you wait for interest rates to move lower again.Assuming you have the extra cash on hand, you can reduce your interest expense by simply paying more each month until you refi.For example, pay an additional $100, $250, or $500 per month and you’ll save on interest and knock down your loan balance.In the process, you will reduce the effective interest rate on your existing home loan and potentially make it easier to refinance later.You Can Still Save Money Without a RefinanceFirst off, you can save money on your mortgage without refinancing if you simply pay extra each month.Let’s consider a simple example where you’ve got a 7% mortgage rate and a $400,000 loan balance.The monthly principal and interest payment is $2,661.21. In just one year, you’d pay $27,871.29 in interest.Now imagine you pay an extra $500 per month to save on that interest. The payment is $3,161.21 per month.After a year, your outstanding balance would be $389,740.45 instead of $395,936.77.After 24 months, the balance would drop to $378,739.26 instead of $391,579.82.Your total interest expense for that period would fall from $55,448.86 to $54,608.30.That’d be about $840 in interest saved and a balance that is $12,841 lower.The cost would be $12,000 ($500×24 months) for savings of $1,681. That’s a return of roughly 14%.A Lower Balance Could Make Your Refinance Rate Cheaper LaterNow imagine rates finally fall to a point where you are “in the money” to refinance. Say the 30-year fixed slips to 5.5% by that time.If you originally put 20% down on your home purchase ($500,000 price tag), your balance could be closer to 75% loan-to-value (LTV).Using that lower outstanding balance of $378,739.26, you could find yourself in a lower LTV tier. You’d only need a new appraised value of around $505,000.Being in a lower LTV bucket means you are subject to lower loan-level price adjustments (LLPAs).As a result, your mortgage rate should be lower all else equal. That might mean a rate of 5.375% instead of 5.5%, or perhaps even 5.25%.Your rate and term refinance just got even better, simply because you made an extra payment to principal for 24 months.Sure, it requires you to hand over an additional $500 to your loan servicer each month, and if cash is tight, it’s not doable.But if you do have extra money on hand and are disappointed that rates haven’t fallen as you thought they would, this is one way to limit the damage of a higher interest rate.If you were just paying the mortgage on schedule, the appraised value would need to be closer to $521,000 to fall into that lower LTV bucket.So it could be a double-win in terms of saving some money before you refinance, and enjoying even greater savings once you do eventually refinance.Read on: How to Lower Your Mortgage Rate Without Refinancing Before creating this site, I worked as an account executive for a wholesale mortgage lender in Los Angeles. My hands-on experience in the early 2000s inspired me to begin writing about mortgages 18 years ago to help prospective (and existing) home buyers better navigate the home loan process. Follow me on Twitter for hot takes.Latest posts by Colin Robertson (see all)

Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., at a Senate Banking Committee hearing in 2014. Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg WASHINGTON — Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., a former three-term senator and five-term U.S. representative who took the helm of the Senate Banking Committee in the wake of the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act, has died at age 77. Johnson died Tuesday evening surrounded by family in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, after complications with a recent stroke, his family said in a statement. "Tim always quipped that neither the left, nor the right, had a monopoly on all of the good ideas, but that working together, we can find common ground for the good of our country," his family said. "In his work and life, Tim showed us never to give up. He will be missed. Our lives are fuller for having been loved and supported by him."Johnson had a 30-year career in politics and never lost an election. He held the post of Senate Banking Committee chairman from 2011 to 2014. In 1987, Johnson was elected to South Dakota's lone seat in the House of Representatives. He served 10 years in the House and decided in 1996 to make a move and run for the U.S. Senate, narrowly defeating three-term Republican Sen. Larry Pressler. In 2002, Johnson ran for reelection and was challenged by his successor in the House, Congressman John Thune. He won the nail-biter of a race by just 524 votes. In 2006, Johnson suffered a brain hemorrhage but returned to a full Senate schedule the next year. He chose not to seek reelection in 2014.During his time leading the Senate Banking Committee, Johnson hoped to reform the housing finance system."Because the housing markets have seen such volatility and they are so fragile, we must be deliberate about their performance," he told American Banker before he took the gavel. "I would rather take time to explore the options and their consequences than push through legislation that could further destabilize house markets or make homeownership unaffordable for the majority of Americans." Frank Gargano He worked with Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, who was at the time the panel's top Republican, on a bipartisan housing finance agreement that would have wound down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, establishing an explicit federal backstop for the secondary mortgage market. "I do not think an arbitrary time line would be helpful because this reform will greatly impact the availability of mortgages," Johnson said. "I would rather get it right than just get it done."Johnson was born in Canton, South Dakota, to Vandel Charles Johnson, an educator and Ruth Jorinda, a homemaker. He earned a bachelor's and a master's degree from the University of South Dakota and returned to his hometown of Vermillion to attend the University of South Dakota School of Law.  He went into private practice and served from 1979 to 1982 in the South Dakota House of Representatives and from 1983 to 1986 in the state Senate.He is survived by his wife Barbara, three children and eight grandchildren."As a fourth generation South Dakotan, fighting for the state he loved was the greatest privilege of his life, but he considered his family his greatest blessing," his family said in a statement.

A federal lawsuit accusing Mr. Cooper of charging junk fees will advance over the servicer's objections.A judge Monday denied Mr. Cooper's motion for judgment on claims that its $25 fees for expedited payoff quote statements are illegal. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act lawsuit from borrowers can proceed to discovery, U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein ordered.The suit refers to Mr. Cooper by its previous Nationstar Mortgage name, which remains in its corporate record. The events in the litigation took place in 2022 and 2023, after the rebranding in 2017.Borrowers who claim they weren't previously aware of the fees are also suing for unjust enrichment and violation of state consumer laws. Attorneys for Mr. Cooper argue in case filings that its fees are permissible, and that the servicer doesn't charge for statements provided within a seven-day business window. The company has stated on its website that fees up to $25 may apply to payoff quotes sent via web. A representative for Mr. Cooper declined to comment. Attorneys for the parties to the lawsuit had not responded this publication's inquiries at deadline.The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau weighed in on the case in August in an amicus brief, siding with borrowers. The regulator said consumers have a right to sue Mr. Cooper despite mortgage contracts requiring them to first notify the company prior to any legal action, an argument Rothstein agreed with Monday. Plaintiffs said they gave notices to the owners of the mortgages: a lender and both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Rothstein said those counted as indirect notices, distinguishing the situation from a case against Ocwen Loan Servicing the courts dismissed in 2017. Plaintiffs never provided notice to the servicer in that lawsuit."Requiring a plaintiff to not only provide notice, but to correctly determine the right party to whom notice must be given, is inconsistent with the purpose of the FDCPA and state consumer laws," Rothstein wrote.Counsel for Mr. Cooper also argued the unjust enrichment count shouldn't stand because the Maryland and Washington consumer laws cited don't allow such claims when a contract governs the parties' conduct. Rothstein agreed with plaintiffs that the claim should stand since the parties' contract doesn't cover the fees at issue. The judge also said Nationstar didn't cite any federal or state law expressly authorizing or approving the expedited fee, also allowing the FDCPA claim to stand. Plaintiffs also named Freddie Mac as a defendant in an amended complaint in May, because of its role as owner of one of the loans in the lawsuit. The government-sponsored enterprise cited the Merrill Doctrine in a motion to dismiss last month. The Merrill Doctrine is a legal principle stating that instruments of the government can't be held liable for actions taken by its agents unless the entity authorized the challenged actions. "The amended complaint does not contain a single allegation that Freddie Mac instructed Nationstar to charge the fee, or actually authorized Nationstar to do so," the GSE's attorneys wrote.Freddie Mac requires servicers to comply with all applicable laws and charge only fees that are legal, rendering the accusations against it in the litigation moot, the enterprise's representation argued. Rothstein didn't rule on Freddie Mac's motion, nor one for class certification by plaintiffs. Mr. Cooper in court filings said plaintiffs are "seeking to capitalize on the wave of so-called 'convenience fee' litigation.'"Among other similar cases, Ocwen is appealing a more recent  "pay-to-pay" suit. The CFPB has asked an appeals court to participate in an oral argument in that case scheduled for November, according to court filings. 

Building on an existing program, the Mortgage Bankers Association is spearheading 14 housing industry players, including other trade associations and the government-sponsored enterprises, in a three-year initiative to close the racial homeownership gap.The program is called the Convergence Collaborative, using the same name MBA has for its work in three cities— Memphis, Tennessee; Columbus, Ohio; and Philadelphia. Plans are for the partnership to spend over $1 million per year during that time."The barriers to minority homeownership require a collective effort. In recognition of this challenge, we believe the approach embodied in the Convergence framework can have a greater impact with this new industry partnership," said Bob Broeksmit, the MBA's president and CEO, in a press release. "By working together, we can produce more and faster results that will reduce the racial homeownership gap."Census Bureau data shows the homeownership rate for white households at 74%, but at only 46% for Black and 49% of Hispanic households.Besides the MBA, the other industry groups in the Convergence Collaborative are the American Land Title Association; the National Association of Realtors; and U.S. Mortgage Insurers.Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are also participants, as well as the following lenders: DHI Mortgage, Fifth Third Bank, Lennar Mortgage, Navy Federal Credit Union, Pulte Financial Services, Taylor Morrison Home Funding and Wells Fargo Home Lending. Navy Federal has been under scrutiny for allegations of bias in mortgage lending, as has Wells Fargo.During the next three years, the Collaborative will use the existing Convergence network to create a robust "Knowledge Community," to help inform the creation of new and innovative strategies, tactics along with partnerships."The housing industry coming together collaboratively is bringing fresh ideas and new approaches to address the homeownership gap in Convergence communities," said ALTA CEO Diane Tomb, whose group is a longstanding partner in the initiative. "As a result, this effort will have a lasting impact on generations of families."The current Convergence programs use existing tools, both online, such as a down payment assistance finder, and in-person resources, such as homebuyer education courses.The need is heightened, MBA said, because minorities are expected to make up most of the net new household formations in the next two decades."By uniting these leaders from across the industry, we are not only addressing systemic barriers in housing but also fostering lasting change in communities across this country," said Kevin Sears, NAR president. "Together, we can empower aspiring homeowners with the tools and resources they need to achieve the dream of homeownership."

Rising mortgage rates last week kept consumers on the sidelines. The Mortgage Bankers Association reported both purchase and refinance applications receding last week, continuing a slide after an end-of-summer surge. The MBA's Market Composite Index of mortgage activity fell 5.1% on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ending Oct. 4, compared to the seven days prior.The effective contract interest rate for all loan types tracked by the MBA rose on a weekly basis, led by the 30-year fixed rate mortgage jumping to 6.36% from 6.14%. The highest mortgage rates since August are the results of stronger economic data, including a September jobs report that came in above expectations. "Conventional loan refinances, which tend to have larger balances than government loans and hence are more responsive for a given change in mortgage rates, fell to a greater extent over the week," said Mike Fratantoni, the MBA's senior vice president and chief economist, in a press release. Among all loan types, conventional loan refi applications fell the most week-over-week, down 14%. The MBA's overall Refinance Index fell 9% during the same period, but remains 159% above where it was the same time a year ago. That assessment aligns directionally with a recent Optimal Blue report showing rate-and-term refi locks up 600% annually in September. The Purchase Index was flat, down 0.1% on a seasonally adjusted basis compared to the week ending Sept. 27. The unadjusted Purchase index inched up 0.1% weekly, and sits 8% higher than it was the previous seven days.  Fratantoni in a statement suggested numerous factors beyond mortgage rates influenced purchase activity. Rising homeowners insurance and property taxes have been particularly painful for consumers. The average loan size was a record $413,100 a few weeks ago, according to the MBA; it was $402,900 in the most recent seven-day period the group tracked.The average 5/1 adjustable-rate mortgage crossed the 6% threshold last week, rising 19 basis points to 6.06%. The 15-year FRM saw the largest increase, climbing 20 bps to 5.71%. Rates for jumbo loans and Federal Housing Administration mortgages meanwhile also rose by double-digit bps, to 6.64% and 6.22%, respectively.