Mortgage Applications Fall As Rates Edge Higher

From Mortgage Daily News:

May 4 2016, 6:26AM 
Average contract mortgage interest rates inched up again during the week ended April 29 and mortgage application activity slowed in response.  The Mortgage Bankers Association said its Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage application volume, dropped by 3.4 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis and 3 percent non-adjusted from the week ended April 22.

Not surprisingly most of the slowdown came from refinancing.  MBA's refinance index fell by 6 percent from the previous week.  The refinance share of overall applications dropped back to 52.9 percent from 54.4 percent.

Purchase mortgage applications did slightly better, eking out a 1.0 percent gain on an unadjusted basis although volume was down 0.1 percent when seasonally adjusted.  The unadjusted index was 13 percent higher than during the same week in 2015.

FHA-backed mortgages got a 13.5 percent share of applications, up from 12.3 percent the previous week.  The VA share dipped from 12.2 percent to 11.5 percent while the USDA share was down 0.1 percentage point to 0.7 percent....MORE