The Economist: MBA mortgage loan applications in the U.S. increased by 3.2% last week

Data from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) shows that mortgage applications in the United States increased by 3.2% in the first week of March compared to the previous week. The benchmark mortgage rate rose again by 10 basis points to 6.19%, and applications for home purchase mortgages jumped by 7.8%, following several weeks of underperformance relative to overall data. Meanwhile, applications for housing refinancing mortgages, which are more sensitive to short-term interest rate changes, saw a slight increase of 0.5%