The volume of mortgage loans to buy property fell to its lowest point in almost nine years last week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
The MBA’s market composite index, a measure of loan application volume increased 3.2 percent compared to the prior week, due to an 11.3 percent increase in the volume of applications to refinance. The purchase index fell by 11.7 percent.
Applications to refinance made up 71.5 percent of all loan application volume during the week, even as the average contract interest rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage dropped to 4.90 percent from 4.97 percent a week earlier.
