Mortgage Applications Surge (Relatively) as Rates Drop (Relatively)

The Mortgage Bankers Association is out with the latest survey of mortgage applications and refinance activity led the charge this week.  In fact, purchase activity declined a bit and refis saw their best weekly gains since September. The following chart shows the week over week change in the refi index: At first glance, it would be easy to assume that this is due to some sort of distortion in the week after Thanksgiving, but if that was the case, we would have seen a similar outlier in the other direction last week.  It's more likely that the sharp decline in rates is the x factor. Notably, MBA's weekly survey data only shows rates declining from 6.69 to 6.67, but MND's daily rates tell a different story with a drop from 6.88 to 6.68.  That 0.20% decline would certainly be eno