Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) — The number of mortgage applications in the U.S. dropped last week, led by the biggest decline in refinancing this year.

The Mortgage Bankers Association’s index of applications to buy a home or refinance a loan decreased 4.3 percent to 652.5 from 681.7 the prior week. The group’s refinancing gauge slumped 15 percent, the most since December, while purchases rose.

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Wells Fargo & Co. is absorbing $1.4 billion in losses on home equity loans that borrowers have stopped repaying amid a deepening real estate slump that’s turned into a financial sinkhole.
 
Until Wells Fargo disclosed its projected losses late Tuesday, the San Francisco-based bank had suffered relatively little damage in a mortgage meltdown that had already battered other major U.S. lenders.

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