MBA: Apps Down In Spite of Rate Drop

In spite of an end to a weeks-long trend of increasing mortgage rates, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported this morning that the volume of both purchase and refinance mortgage applications dropped last week — perhaps reflecting consumers’ hesitance over the current direction of the mortgage market.

The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 643.7, a decrease of 3.4 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 666.5 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 4.1 percent compared with the previous week and was up 13.2 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The Refinance Index decreased 4.2 percent to 1776.8 from 1854.8 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 3.0 percent to 450.9 from 464.7 one week earlier. The seasonally adjusted Conventional Index decreased 3.7 percent to 943.0 from 979.1 the previous week, and the seasonally adjusted Government Index decreased 0.3 percent to 144.7 from 145.2 the previous week.

Refinance share held steady at 38 percent, the trade organization said.