Mortgage application volume fell a whopping 22.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ending February 15, according to the latest survey on the Mortgage Bankers Association website.
On an unadjusted basis, application volume was off 21.2 percent compared to the prior week and up 33.9 percent compared to the same week a year ago.
The decline was led by a pullback in both refinance and purchase activity, with refis off a startling 27.9 percent from the previous week and purchases down 11.5 percent, on a seasonally adjusted basis.
That caused the refinance share of total applications to fall to 61.7 percent from 67.4 percent the prior week, the third straight weekly decline.
Interest rates were no help as applications cooled, with fixed-rate mortgages rising substantially week-over-week.
The average 30-year fixed climbed to 6.09 percent last week from 5.72 percent, while the 15-year jumped to 5.55 percent from 5.18 percent.
The average one-year adjustable-rate mortgage remained unchanged at 5.72 percent, which may explain why the share of total loan applications that were ARMs increased to 12.8 percent last week from 9.9 percent the previous week.
The MBA’s weekly survey, compiled every week since 1990, covers about half of all U.S. retail residential mortgage applications.
Despite the generally positive numbers, it should be noted that the index only covers retail originations, which surely have increased as a result of wholesale’s demise.
(photo: booleansplit)
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