{"id":57351,"date":"2025-12-24T08:38:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T12:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/us-mortgage-applications-decline-sharply-as-rates-hold-steady\/57351\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T08:38:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T12:38:13","slug":"us-mortgage-applications-decline-sharply-as-rates-hold-steady","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/us-mortgage-applications-decline-sharply-as-rates-hold-steady\/57351\/","title":{"rendered":"US Mortgage Applications Decline Sharply as Rates Hold Steady"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Mortgage applications in the U.S. saw a significant <strong>5.0% week-over-week decrease<\/strong> for the week ending December 19, a steeper decline than the previous week&#39;s <strong>3.8%<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate held at <strong>6.31%<\/strong>, a slight dip from <strong>6.38%<\/strong> in the prior week, yet failed to stimulate demand.<\/li>\n<li>Both refinancing and purchase applications experienced declines, indicating a continued slowdown in housing market activity as the year concludes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>U.S. mortgage applications fell by <strong>5.0%<\/strong> on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ending December 19, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association&#39;s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey. This marks the second consecutive week of declines and the third in the last four, signaling a persistent cooling in the housing market as 2025 draws to a close. The unadjusted decline was <strong>6%<\/strong> from the previous week.<\/p>\n<p>The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances decreased slightly to <strong>6.31%<\/strong> from <strong>6.38%<\/strong> the prior week. Despite this marginal drop in rates, it was insufficient to spur increased activity among potential borrowers.<\/p>\n<p>Refinancing applications saw a <strong>6% week-over-week fall<\/strong>, though they remain significantly higher, up <strong>110%<\/strong> compared to the same week last year. This suggests that while some homeowners are still looking to refinance, the current rate environment is not enticing enough for a broader surge in activity. Purchase applications also softened, declining <strong>7%<\/strong> on an unadjusted basis week-over-week, though they are still running <strong>13%<\/strong> above last year&#39;s pace.<\/p>\n<p>The continued decline in mortgage applications reflects a typical seasonal slowdown towards the end of the year, compounded by persistent elevated interest rates and ongoing economic uncertainties. <em>Mike Fratantoni, MBA&#39;s SVP and Chief Economist, noted that purchase application volume typically drops off quickly at year-end, shifting the mix towards refinancing, which reached 59% of applications last week, the highest since September<\/em>. This trend highlights the challenges facing the housing market as it heads into the new year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Takeaways Mortgage applications in the U.S. saw a significant 5.0% week-over-week decrease for the week ending December 19, a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"rank_math_schema_Article":[],"rank_math_focus_keyword":[],"rank_math_description":[],"financial_data_references":[],"stock_symbols_mentioned":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[5012],"tags":[4222,5310,5728,7341,7344],"class_list":["post-57351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","tag-interest-rates","tag-us-economy","tag-housing-market","tag-mortgage-applications","tag-mba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}