After rising for two straight weeks, mortgage application volume fell 7.8 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ending May 16, according to the latest weekly survey from the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Retail home loan lending is now close to its low for 2008, and off 9.4 percent compared with the same week a year earlier.
The drop in volume was led by a 8.7 percent slip in refinance activity, a seven percent drop in FHA lending, and a 6.9 percent decrease in purchase applications.
The refinance share of total applications fell to 48.2 percent, down from 48.7 one week earlier as interest rates crept up across the board.
The traditional 30-year fixed-rate mortgage climbed to 5.9 percent from 5.82 percent, while the 15-year rose four basis points to 5.42 percent.
Despite the fact that the one-year adjustable-rate mortgage averaged 6.71 percent, up from 6.60 percent, ARM activity increased to 10 percent of total applications, up from 8.3 percent last week.
Mortgage points, including origination fee, decreased 11 basis points to 1.12 percent on 30-year loans, increased five basis points to 1.14 percent on 15-year loans, and increased four basis points to 1.35 percent on one-year ARMs.
(photo: o2ma)
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