Mortgage applications finally cooled off and there wasn’t a holiday to blame, according to the latest survey from the MBA.
Home loan application volume fell 18.1 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis (-17.4 percent unadjusted) for the week ending April 24, but was still up 62.7 percent compared to the same week a year ago.
The drop was led by a 21.9 percent decrease in refinance applications and minor dips in purchase activity and FHA loans.
The refinance share of mortgage activity fell to 75.3 percent of total applications from 79.7 percent, despite another drop in interest rates.
The oh-so-popular 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.62 percent, down from 4.73 percent a week ago.
The 15-year fixed slipped a single basis point to 4.45 percent and the one-year adjustable-rate mortgage averaged 6.23 percent, up from 6.19 percent.
The MBA’s weekly survey, around since 1990, covers about half of all retail residential home loan applications.
However, it doesn’t filter out of double apps and declined applications, which have surely risen as a result of the current crisis.
This is only the second time in the last eight weeks that mortgage application volume has decreased; the only other time happened to be during the Passover/Easter week.
It’s also important to note that mortgage application volume probably looks stronger because most mortgages are originated via the retail channel, which skews the numbers.
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