Mortgage Bankers Association's index shows the number of people applying for a home loan fell 14.2% last week.
April 23, 2008: 7:58 AM EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Mortgage application volume fell 14.2% during the week ending April 18, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's weekly application survey.
The MBA's application index fell to 637.6 from 743.4 the previous week.
Refinance volume fell 20.2%, while purchase volume declined 6.4%. Refinance applications accounted for 49.2% of total applications compared with 53.5% a week earlier.
The index peaked at 1,856.7 during the week ending May 30, 2003, at the height of the housing boom.
An index value of 100 is equal to the application volume on March 16, 1990, the first week the MBA tracked application volume. A reading of 637.6 means mortgage application activity is 6.376 times higher than it was when the MBA began tracking the data.
The survey provides a snapshot of mortgage lending activity among mortgage bankers, commercial banks and thrifts. It covers about 50% of all residential retail mortgage originations each week.
Application volume fell as interest rates for fixed-rate loans moved higher.
The average interest rate for traditional, 30-year fixed-rate mortgages rose to 6.04% from 5.74% the previous week. The average rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, often a popular option for refinancing a loan, increased to 5.6% from 5.27%.
The rate for one-year adjustable-rate mortgages fell to 6.93% from 7.02% the previous week.
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