Mortgage Applications Down This Week, Says MBA

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According to the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) latest Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey  for the week ending July 23, the Market Composite Index decreased 4.4 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier.  On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 4.2 percent compared with the previous week.

The Refinance Index decreased 5.9 percent from the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 2.0 percent from one week earlier and is the highest Purchase Index observed in the survey since the end of June. The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 2.4 percent compared with the previous week and was 34.3 percent lower than the same week one year ago.

The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is up 1.6 percent.  The four week moving average is flat for the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index, while this average is up 2.0 percent for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 78.0 percent of total applications from 79.4 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 5.7 percent from 5.2 percent of total applications from the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 4.69 percent from 4.59 percent, with points decreasing to 0.88 from 1.04 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans.  The effective rate also increased from last week.

The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 4.12 percent from 4.05 percent, with points decreasing to 0.83 from 0.88 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate also increased from last week.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 7.15 percent from 7.17 percent, with points decreasing to 0.23 from 0.24 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

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