Requests for purchase loans were down 1 percent week over week and 15 percent from a year ago, according to the latest Mortgage Bankers Association survey.
Fannie Mae and MBA economists are now in agreement that mortgage rates will come down only gradually this year and next but that home price appreciation will slow.
Demand for some of the most exclusive luxuries remains, even as the city of San Francisco itself grapples with plunging home prices and an all-time high in office vacancies.