WASHINGTON – The number of mortgage loan applications nationwide fell for the second week in a row as interest rates again rose on 30-year loans, the Mortgage Bankers Association said today in its weekly report.

For the week ended April 18, the group’s Market Composite Index – a measure of mortgage loan application volume – fell to a seasonally adjusted 637.6 points. That represented a 14.2-percent decrease from the week before, and a 3.2-percent decline from the same week a year ago.

The MBA’s seasonally adjusted Purchase Index fell 6.4 percent last week to 3573 points, points, after falling 0.8 percent the week before. Meanwhile, the seasonally adjusted Refinance Index plunged 20.2 percent compared with the previous week, to 2,286.3 points, after rising 5.2 percent in the week ended April 11, the MBA said.

Refinancing attempts accounted for 49.2 percent of total applications last week, down from 53.5 percent the week before. But adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) increased to 6.6 percent of applications from 6.0 percent in the week ended April 11.

The average contract interest rate for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage rose to 5.6 percent last week from 5.27 percent the week before, while the average rate for a one-year ARM fell to 6.93 percent from the previous week’s 7.02 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.