WASHINGTON – The number of mortgage applications nationwide dropped last week, as interest rates continued to rise, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported today.
For the week that ended Feb. 22, the trade group’s Market Composite Index – a measure of mortgage loan application volume – fell 19.2 percent compared with the previous week, to a seasonally adjusted 665.1 points, after falling 22.6 percent the week ending Feb. 15. Compared with the same week last year, the application rate rose 5.1 percent.
The MBA’s seasonally adjusted Purchase Index rose 0.2 percent to 358.2 points last week, after falling 11.5 percent the week before. Meanwhile, the group’s seasonally adjusted Refinance Index plunged 30.4 percent to 2,458.9 points, accelerating from the previous week’s 27.9-percent decline.
Applications for refinancing accounted for 52.0 percent of total applications, down from 61.7 percent in the week ended Feb. 15, as many homeowners waited for rates to fall again. Meanwhile, adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) increased to 15 percent of last week’s activity from 12.8 percent the week before.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages rose to 6.80 percent last week from the previous week’s 6.10 percent. The average rate for one-year ARMs increased slightly to 5.84 percent last week from the previous week’s 5.72 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.
