Mortgage Applications Technically Improve

First thing's first, mortgage applications increased last week, both for purchases and refinances! It was the first improvement for refi demand since mid September, when rates were well into their lowest levels in more than 2 years.  Top tier conventional 30yr fixed rates were being quoted at around 6% at the time, but moved rapidly up to 7%+ in the first 3 weeks of October. The resulting drop in refi demand was as logical as it was unfortunate, and it didn't really let up until 2 weeks ago.  Since then, last week saw only a microscopic decrease which, in turn, paved the way for this week's microscopic increase.  In the bigger picture, the refinance index remains in the lowest territory in decades. The Purchase Index is actually in a similar boat.  In fact, we'd need to go even