"The new numbers from the mortgage industry are in, and as expected, they're not good as reported by the MBA. In a nutshell, high mortgage rates continue to wreak havoc on the industry with purchase apps down over 5% and refi's down over 8% week over week along with overall refinance activity down almost 80% from a year ago," says Curtis Wood. He also states that the next 12 to 24 months will be positive for first time home buyers.