Econintersect: Mortgage applications decreased 6.7% (seasonally adjusted) from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending April 8, 2011.
Econintersect believes mortgage applications are no longer predicitive of home sales as over 1/3 of the current home purchases are not financed.
On an unadjusted basis, mortgages decreased 6.3% compared with the previous week. The Refinance Index decreased 7.7 percent to its lowest level since February 11, 2011.
The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 60.3% of total applications from 61.2% the previous week. This is the lowest refinance share since May 7, 2010.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased for the fourth consecutive week to 4.98 percent from 4.93 percent, with points increasing to 0.93 from 0.69 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans. This is the highest average contract rate reported since February 18, 2011. The effective rate also increased from last week.
The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 4.17 percent from 4.14 percent, with points increasing to 1.22 from 1.09 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate also increased from last week.
