Mortgage application volume fell 2.5% on an adjusted basis during the week ended Oct. 26, as the average rate for a 30-year remained flat at 5.11%, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey.
The decrease follows a 4.9% increase the previous week. As of last week, mortgage application volume had fallen on an overall basis for three of the four past weeks.
Applications for refinances fell 4% while applications for purchases fell 2%.
On an unadjusted basis, total volume fell 3% compared with the previous week. Applications for purchases decreased 2% on an unadjusted basis and were 0.4% lower compared with the same week one year earlier.
Joel Kan, assistant vice president of economic and industry forecasts for the MBA, notes that “purchase applications may have been adversely impacted by the recent uptick in rates and the significant stock market volatility we have seen the past couple of weeks.”
The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 39.4% of total applications, down from 39.8% the previous week.
The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 7.6% of total applications, the highest level since May 2017.
However, as Kan notes, “this is a compositional measure” and “was driven by a greater decrease in applications for fixed-term loans relative to the decrease in ARM applications.”
