By Emily Sutton
PBN Staff Writer
WASHINGTON – The number of mortgage loan applications fell nationwide, for the second week in a row, and the fifth of the past six weeks, the Mortgage Bankers Association said today in its weekly report.
For the week ended March 14, the group’s Market Composite Index – a measure of mortgage loan application volume – fell to a seasonally adjusted 652.0 points. That represented a 2.9-percent decrease from the week before, and a 3.7-percent decline from the same week a year ago.
The MBA’s seasonally adjusted Purchase Index fell 1.0 percent last week to 365.0 points, after rising 1.6 percent the week before. At the same time, the seasonally adjusted Refinance Index dropped 4.6 percent from the previous week to 2,335.0 points in the week ended March 14.
Refinancing attempts accounted for 49.7 percent of total applications last week, compared with the previous week’s 50.6 percent. Adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) fell to 7.9 percent of applications from 15.5 percent in the week ended March 7.
The average contract interest rate for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage fell to 5.98 percent last week from 6.37 percent the week before. But the average rate for one-year ARMs increased to 6.95 percent from the previous week’s rate of 6.72 percent.
The Mortgage Bankers Association is a trade group representing the real estate finance industry. Its 3,000 member companies include mortgage firms, commercial banks, thrifts, life insurance companies and others. Additional information, including the MBA’s Weekly Application Survey, is available at www.mortgagebankers.org.
