Demand for mortgages fell a seasonally adjusted 12.3 percent during the week ending Oct. 23, driven largely by a 16.2 percent drop in applications for refinancings from the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey.
Applications for purchase loans were down a seasonally adjusted 5.2 percent from a week earlier, and 15.4 percent from a year ago.
Requests for refinancings made up 62.3 percent of all loan applications, down from 65 percent the week before. Applications for adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) loans accounted for 6.9 percent of applications, up from 6.4 percent the previous week.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.04 percent from 5.07 percent, with points increasing to 1.25 from 1.13 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans.
The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 4.53 percent from 4.51 percent, with points decreasing to 0.78 from 0.96 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.
The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 6.79 percent from 6.86 percent, with points decreasing to 0.29 from 0.31 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.
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