MBA: Mortgage Applications Decrease, Mortgage Rates Increase

From the MBA: Mortgage Applications Decrease in Latest MBA Weekly Survey

The Refinance Index decreased 3 percent from the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 3 percent from one week earlier.
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The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($417,500 or less) increased to 4.17 percent, the highest rate since March 2012, from 4.15 percent, with points decreasing to 0.41 from 0.48 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value ratio (LTV) loans. This is the sixth straight weekly increase for this rate.
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The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 3.30 percent from 3.32 percent, with points increasing to 0.39 from 0.38 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.
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Click on graph for larger image.

The first graph shows the refinance index.

With 30 year mortgage rates above 4%, refinance activity has fallen sharply, decreasing in 5 of the last 6 weeks.

This index is down 38% over the last six weeks.

The second graph shows the MBA mortgage purchase index.  The 4-week average of the purchase index has generally been trending up over the last year, and the 4-week average of the purchase index is up almost 10% from a year ago.