Mortgage application volume fell for a fifth straight week, dipping 1.4% compared with the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Applications Survey.
It was the fifth consecutive week that mortgage applications fell – this despite the fact that mortgage rates remained near two-year lows.
Applications for refinances increased 0.1% compared with the previous week and were 84% higher compared with the same week one year earlier.
Applications for purchases, however, decreased 3% from a week earlier.
On an unadjusted basis, total volume decreased 1% compared with the previous week. Applications for purchases decreased 3% compared with the previous week but were 6% higher compared with year earlier.
“While purchase activity was still up six percent from a year ago, the index has now decreased for three straight weeks and reached its lowest point since March,” says Joel Kan, associate vice president of economic and industry forecasting for the MBA, in a statement. “Despite healthy demand, inadequate supply levels continue to hold back some would-be buyers. Rate movements were mixed, with the 30-year fixed rate remaining unchanged at 4.08 percent, but the FHA rate decreasing to its lowest level since 2017 to 3.94 percent.”
Kan adds that although refinance applications were essentially flat, “the components told different stories. Conventional refinances were up 1.1 percent, but government refinances were down almost three percent, led by a drop in VA applications.”
The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 50.5% of total applications, up from 49.8% the previous week.
The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity remained unchanged at 4.7% of total applications.
For the week ended July 26, the average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, based on contract signings, remained unchanged at 4.08%.