Applications Fall

The Market Composite Index, an overall measure of mortgage applications, fell to 736.7 on a seasonally adjusted basis during the week ended Aug. 15, down from 824.6 the week before, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association of America's Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey.On an unadjusted basis, applications were down 11.2% on the week and 33.9% from the level recorded a year earlier. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the Purchase Index decreased from 409.6 to 389.5, and the Refinance Index declined from 3238.4 to 2756.8. Refinancings represented 53.4% of total applications, down from 55.8% the previous week, while adjustable-rate mortgages accounted for 23.3%. "One factor that no doubt negatively affected mortgage applications last week was the blackout in the Northeast that shut down many mortgage offices for at least a day," said Jay Brinkmann, the MBA's vice president of research and economics. "Unfortunately, the nature of our data is such that we cannot estimate the magnitude of the impact." The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages rose from 6.00% to 6.22%, and points (including the origination fee) increased from 1.37 to 1.50 for loans with 80% loan-to-value ratios, the MBA reported. The MBA can be found online at http://www.mbaa.org.