Mortgage applications to buy a home fell 11% last week and 24% from a year ago, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Mortgage Bankers Association.
While the entire US is grappling with the coronavirus pandemic and fallout due to social distancing measures, the housing market has been hit hardest in New York, California, and Washington state, where mortgage applications are down more than 30% on the year. Potential homebuyers are backing off the housing market amid the coronavirus pandemic.
"The bleaker economic outlook, along with the first wave of realized job losses reported in last week's unemployment claims numbers, likely caused potential homebuyers to pull back," said Joel Kan, the associate vice president of economic and industry forecasting at MBA."Purchase applications were down over 10 percent, and after double-digit annual growth to start 2020, activity has fallen off last year's pace for two straight weeks.