U.S. mortgage applications last week continued to decline moderately, according to the latest Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey released Wednesday by the U.S. Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).
The MBA said that the Market Composite Index of U.S. mortgage applications, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 2.7 percent in the week ending June 24, 2011 on a seasonally adjusted basis from the previous week.
The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index was down 3.0 percent, and the seasonally adjusted Refinance Index fell 2.6 percent from one week earlier.
However, the four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index rose 0.7 percent. The four week moving average was up 1.5 percent for the seasonally adjusted Refinance Index, while this average declined 1.5 percent for the Purchase Index, according to the survey.
In addition, the association said that the average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages last week decreased to 4.46 percent from 4.57 percent, and the average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages also fell to 3.64 percent from 3.70 percent.
The survey covers over 50 percent of all U.S. retail residential mortgage applications, and has been conducted weekly since 1990. Respondents include mortgage bankers, commercial banks and thrifts./.