Applications Slide

The Market Composite Index, an overall measure of mortgage applications, fell to 1346.3 on a seasonally adjusted basis during the holiday-shortened week ended July 4 from 1635.5 the week before, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association of America's Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey.On a seasonally adjusted basis, the Purchase Index decreased from 438.4 to 414.1, and the Refinance Index declined from 8599.1 to 6768.3. "The number of refinance applications fell back to the levels we saw at the beginning of May," said Jay Brinkmann, the MBA's vice president of research and economics. "So while there was a decline, it was a decline from unbelievably high levels to merely extraordinarily high levels." Refinancings represented 72.1% of total applications, down from 75.6% the previous week, while adjustable-rate mortgages accounted for 13.6%. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages rose from 5.23% to 5.37%, and points (including the origination fee) increased from 1.45 to 1.46 for loans with 80% loan-to-value ratios, the MBA reported. The MBA can be found online at http://www.mbaa.org.