Weekly Report: Mortgage Applications Decline

ByTMN Editor Reading Time: 1 minute

Mortgage applications fell by 6.4 percent last week, though remain higher than a year ago at the same time, the Mortgage Bankers Association announced Wednesday.

Highlights from the weekly report include:

  • The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 6.4 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier.
  • On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 5 percent compared with the previous week.
  • The Refinance Index decreased 8 percent from the previous week and was 165 percent higher than the same week one year ago.
  • The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 3 percent from one week earlier.
  • The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 2 percent compared with the previous week and was 10 percent higher than the same week one year ago. 

“Purchase applications fell 3 percent last week, as there continues to be some pullback after a strong January,” said Joel Kan, MBA’s Associate Vice President of Economic and Industry Forecasting. “Activity was still 10 percent higher than a year ago, but too few options – especially at the lower portion of the market – are slowing some would-be buyers.”

The weekly MBA survey covers more than 75 percent of all U.S. retail residential mortgage applications. Respondents include mortgage bankers, commercial banks and thrifts.