U.S. mortgage applications fall to lowest since Dec 2000: MBA

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Applications for U.S. home mortgages fell last week to the lowest since December 2000 as interest rates rose for the first time in four weeks, an industry group said on Wednesday. The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity, which includes both refinancing and home purchase demand, fell 7.2 percent in the week ended Sept. 5. The MBA's seasonally adjusted index of refinancing applications dropped 10.7 percent to the lowest since November 2008, while the gauge of loan requests for home purchases, a leading indicator of home sales, fell 2.6 percent. Fixed 30-year mortgage rates averaged 4.27 percent in the week, up from 4.25 percent the week before. The survey covers over 75 percent of U.S. retail residential mortgage applications, according to MBA. (Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Diane Craft and James Dalgleish)