Despite record low interest rates for home loans, mortgage applications fell 1.3 percent for the week ending May 25, according to weekly data from the Mortgage Bankers Association. The overall decline was due mostly to applications for refinances, which fell 1.6 percent. Purchase applications decreased 0.6 percent, leaving its share of mortgage activity unchanged from the previous week at 23.4 percent.
Over the last four weeks, refinance applications have trended higher by 4.36 percent while the moving average for purchase applications is down 0.67 percent.
The average interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage with a conforming loan balance dropped two basis points to 3.91, the lowest rate in the history of the survey. Jumbo loan interest rates slid by the same amount to 4.23 percent. Rates on FHA-backed 30-year fixed-rate loans fell to 3.70 percent — also an all-time low — from 3.73 percent. Finally, interest rates for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages also reached a new low, dropping three basis points to 3.23 percent, and 5/1 adjustable-rate mortgages decreased by twice that amount to a new low of 2.77 percent. — Adam Fusfeld
