Mortgage Bankers' Applications Decline Again

With rates back above 5% for the second consecutive week, the Mortgage Bankers Association's Weekly Applications Survey registered a decrease in overall, refinance and home purchase activity. The Market Composite Index, a measure of loan application volume, decreased 13.7% for the week ending Oct. 16 on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 22.4% compared with the previous week. An adjustment was made to the Index to take into account Columbus Day. The Refinance Index decreased 16.8% from the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 7.6% from one week earlier. The market share of refinance applications, according to the survey, declined to 65.0% from 67.4% for the previous week. The share of adjustable rate mortgage applications increased to 6.4% for the week, up from 6.2% one week prior. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages rose to 5.07% from 5.02%, with points increasing from 1.11 to 1.13 (including the origination fee) for loans with an 80% percent loan-to-value ratio, according to the association. The average contract interest rate for 15-year FRMs increased 6 basis points from the previous week, to 4.51%, while for one-year adjustable rate loans, it increased by 15 BP to 6.71%. The MBA stopped disclosing index values with the July 31 data release. The MBA can be found online at http://www.mortgagebankers.org.