WASHINGTON – The number of mortgage applications filed nationwide fell 1.5 percent last week, as contract interest rates climbed for fixed-rate mortgages, the Mortgage Bankers Association said today in its weekly report.
The trade group’s seasonally adjusted Market Composite Index – a measure of overall mortgage loan application volume – decreased to 425.9 in the week ended Aug. 8. That represented a drop of 1.5 percent from the previous week’s 432.6 points (READ MORE) and 36.9 percent from the index level a year ago.
The MBA’s seasonally adjusted Purchase Index remained unchanged from the week before at 309.5 points. The Refinance Index fell 4.2 percent to 1,074.6 points, from 1,121.9 in the week ended Aug. 1, but remained above the preceding week’s eight-year low of 1,074.4 points.
Refinancing attempts accounted for 35.2 percent of total applications last week, down slightly from the preceding week’s 35.9 percent, the MBA said. Meanwhile, applications for adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) increased to 7.3 percent of total applications from 6.9 percent of total applications the week before.
The average contract interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage edged up to 6.57 percent in the week ended Aug. 8 from 6.41 the week before; also rising was the average rate on a 15-year fixed-rate loan, which increased to 6.17 percent last week from 6.02 percent in the week before. The average rate on a one-year ARM edged downward, however, to 7.15 percent last week from 7.17 percent the week before
“I don’t see a recovery in housing until next year,” Bob Moulton, president of the Manhasset, N.Y.-based Americana Mortgage Group, told Bloomberg News. “Credit is tightening up. People just don’t want to overpay, so they’re waiting for prices to fall further.”
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.
