Mortgage applications decreased 1.1 percent from the week earlier, according to seasonally adjusted data from the MBA’s Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week that ended Dec. 11, 2015.
On an unadjusted basis, the index increased 2 percent compared with the previous week. The Refinance Index increased 1 percent from the previous week, while the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 3 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 7 percent compared with the previous week and was 34 percent higher than the same week one year ago.
The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 60.7 percent of total applications from 58.7 percent from the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 6.0 percent of total applications.
The FHA share of total applications remained unchanged from 14.0 percent the week prior. The VA share of total applications increased to 11.2 percent from 10.8 percent the week prior. The USDA share of total applications decreased to 0.6 percent from 0.7 percent the week prior.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($417,000 or less) remained unchanged at 4.14 percent, with points increasing to 0.45 from 0.43 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value ratio (LTV) loans. The effective rate remained unchanged from last week.
The survey covers more than 75 percent of all U.S. retail residential mortgage applications, and has been conducted weekly since 1990. Respondents include mortgage bankers, commercial banks and thrifts.