Mortgage Application Activity Declines Again

The level of mortgage application activity declined last week, according to new data from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).

The Market Composite Index, the trade group’s measure of mortgage loan application volume, was down by 1.3% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 2% compared with the previous week.

Both the seasonally adjusted and the unadjusted Purchase Index dropped 2% from one week earlier, while the unadjusted index was also 27% lower than the same week one year ago.

The Refinance Index dipped by 1% percent from the previous week and was 21% below the level set during the same week one year ago. However, the refinance share of mortgage activity increased slightly to 31.9% percent of total applications from 31.6% in the previous week.

Among the federal programs, the FHA share of total applications decreased to 14.1% from 14.2% the week prior while the VA share of total applications decreased to 10.9% from 11.0% and the USDA share of total applications inched up to 0.5% from 0.4%.