The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) publishes the results of a weekly applications survey that covers roughly 50 percent of all residential mortgage originations and tracks the average interest rate for 30 year and 15 year fixed rate mortgages as well as the volume of both purchase and refinance applications.The purchase application index has been highlighted as a particularly important data series as it very broadly captures the demand side of residential real estate for both new and existing home purchases.
The latest data is showing that the average rate for a 30 year fixed rate mortgage declined 16 basis point to 4.84% since last week while the purchase application volume declined 6.1% and the refinance application volume declined 6.5% over the same period.
While rates have now fallen for three consecutive weeks, it will take some time to determine if the recent uptrend will continue or if rates will begin to trend back down to the historically low levels seen in mid-2010.
In any event, the purchase application volume remains near the lowest level seen in well over a decade while refinance activity continues to slow.
The following chart shows the average interest rate for 30 year and 15 year fixed rate mortgages since 2006 as well as the purchase, refinance and composite loan volumes (click for larger dynamic full-screen version).
