Mortgage Bankers Association: Latest Week's Apps Drop Again

For the second consecutive week, the Mortgage Bankers Association's Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey found that although long-term mortgage rates on average were below the 5% mark, overall application volume declined. MBA's Market Composite Index for the week of Feb. 12, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 2.1% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 0.5% compared with the previous week. The Refinance Index decreased 1.2% from the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 4.0% from one week earlier. The market share of refi applications was 69.3% of total applications, down from 69.7% the previous week. The market share of applications for adjustable rate mortgages fell one basis point from the previous week, to 4.4%. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages remained unchanged at 4.94%, with points rising to 1.09 from 1.06 (including the origination fee) for loans with an 80% percent loan-to-value ratio, the association reported. The average contract interest rate for 15-year FRMs was 4.33% for the third consecutive week. The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 6.67% from 6.68%.