Mortgage application volume fell 11.1 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ending April 25 to hit its lowest point of the year, the Mortgage Bankers Association said today.
On an unadjusted basis, the application index was off 10.2 percent compared to one week earlier and 14.2 percent from a year ago.
The Refinance Index plunged 16.7 percent from a week ago, while the Purchase Index dipped 4.8 percent and the Government Purchase Index slipped 3.7 percent.
The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to just 45.7 percent of total applications, down from 49.2 percent the previous week and well below its near-75 percent share at the end of January.
Even lower interest rates couldn’t buoy the drop in applications, as the 30-year fixed averaged 6.01 percent, down from 6.04 percent a week earlier and the 15-year fell to 5.53 percent from 5.60 percent.
The average one-year adjustable-rate mortgage decreased to 6.86 percent from 6.93 percent, but the share of ARM activity fell to 5.9 percent of total applications from 6.6 percent previously.
The MBA’s weekly survey, compiled every week since 1990, covers about half of all U.S. retail residential mortgage applications.
Despite the generally decent numbers, it should be noted that the index only covers retail originations, which surely have increased as a result of wholesale’s demise.
(photo: cloudsoup)
