MBA: Mortgage Purchase Applications increase slightly, Refinance Applications Decline in Latest Weekly Survey

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

The Refinance Index decreased 4 percent from the previous week and is at its lowest level since July 2011. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 1 percent from one week earlier.
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The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 63 percent of total applications from 64 percent the previous week and is at its lowest level since April 2011.
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The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($417,500 or less) was unchanged at 4.68 percent, with points decreasing to 0.42 from 0.46 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value ratio (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 4.5%, refinance activity has fallen sharply, decreasing in 9 of the last 10 weeks.

This index is down 55% over the last ten 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.