MBA: Mortgage Purchase Applications Increase Slightly in Latest MBA Weekly Survey

by Bill McBride on 7/30/2014 07:01:00 AM

From the MBA: Purchase Applications Increase Slightly in Latest MBA Weekly Survey

Mortgage applications decreased 2.2 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending July 25, 2014. ...

The Refinance Index decreased 4 percent from the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 0.2 percent from one week earlier. ...
...
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($417,000 or less) remained unchanged at 4.33 percent, with points increasing to 0.24 from 0.23 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value ratio (LTV) loans.
emphasis added

Click on graph for larger image.

The first graph shows the refinance index.

The refinance index is down 75% from the levels in May 2013.

As expected, refinance activity is very low this year.

The second graph shows the MBA mortgage purchase index.  

According to the MBA, the unadjusted purchase index is down about 12% from a year ago.