Mortgage applications filed by U.S. borrowers declined 3.8% last week as refinancing activity cooled, an industry trade group said Wednesday.
The Mortgage Bankers Association's loan application volume fell as the refinancing index slipped 5.6% from the previous week. Despite the slowdown in refinancing, the purchase index saw a 3.6% uptick in activity.
Refinancing activity represented 73.4% of total application volume, compared to 75.2% a week earlier.
"Within refinance applications taken in March 2012, 58.8 percent were for fixed-rate 30-year loans, 23.1 percent for 15-year fixed loans and 5.2 percent for ARMs," the MBA said. "The share of refinance applications for other fixed-rate mortgages with amortization schedules other than 15 and 30-year terms was 12.8 percent of all refinance applications."
The average interest rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage with conforming loan limits declined from 4.05% to 4.04%, the lowest in the history of the survey.
Meanwhile, the average interest rate on a 30-year, FRM with nonconforming loan limits declined from 4.36% to 4.27%.
The interest rate for the 30-year, FRM backed by FHA declined to 3.81%, while the 15-year, FRM declined from 3.33% to 3.32%.
The average rate for 5/1 ARMs fell from 2.83% to 2.81%.
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