Mortgage Applications Fall to 15-Year Low Despite Enticing Rates

WASHINGTON - Mortgage applications to purchase a home fell last week to a 15-year low, despite the lowest mortgage rates in decades.

Many potential buyers are holding off because they are worried about job security and fear the economy could slip back into another recession.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday that an index measuring mortgage applications, which are adjusted for seasonal factors, fell 2.4 percent last week from the previous week. Home mortgage applications plunged 5.7 percent to its lowest level since December 1996.