WASHINGTON – The number of home-loan applications filed nationwide fell last week to the lowest level since December 2000, according to the latest figures from the Mortgage Bankers Association.

In the week ended Nov. 15, the trade group’s seasonally adjusted Market Composite Index – a measure of overall mortgage loan application volume – fell to 398.6 points (March 16, 1990 = 100 points). That represented a decline of 6.2 percent from the preceding week’s 425.0 points and 41.3 percent from the same week a year ago.

The MBA’s seasonally adjusted Purchase Index fell 12.6 percent week-over-week to 248.5 points, after rising 9 percent the week ended Nov. 7 and falling 13.9 percent the week before that. (READ MORE) Applications to purchase a home using Federal Housing Authority (FHA) and other government-backed loans fell 6.5 percent last week while applications for non-government backed loans fell 15.3 percent, the MBA said.

The Refinance Index increased 2.6 percent last week to 1,281.2 points, after rising 16.1 percent the previous week and falling 27.8 percent in the final week of October. Refinancing was the goal of nearly half of loan applications last week – 49.9 percent – up from 45.1 percent in the week ended Nov. 7 and 42.9 percent of applications in the week ended Oct. 31, the MBA said.

The share of mortgage applicants who were seeking adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) – rather than conventional fixed-rate loans – rose to 2.6 percent last week from 2.3 percent of applications filed in the week ended Nov. 7 and 2.5 percent the week before.

The average contract interest rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage dipped to 6.16 percent last week from the previous week’s 6.24 percent, while the contract interest rate on a 15-year, fixed-rate loan edged down to 5.87 percent from the previous 5.90 percent. But the average contract rate on a one-year ARM rose to 6.80 percent from the preceding week’s 6.77-percent average.

“The intensification of economic and financial problems since September has been having a negative effect on home sales,” Abiel Reinhart, an economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York, said in a note to clients today, according to Bloomberg News.

A separate report today, from the U.S. Department of Commerce and Department Housing and Economic Development (HUD), found that housing starts and new permits for residential construction both hit record lows in October – declines that were sharpest in the Northeast. (READ MORE)

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.