The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its weekly report on mortgage applications Wednesday morning, noting a decrease of 12.8% in the group’s seasonally adjusted composite index. That followed a drop of 0.3% for the previous week. Mortgage loan rates decreased slightly on adjustable rate loans, but increased again on fixed rate mortgage loans.

Last week’s data includes an adjustment for the Thanksgiving holiday, so while the unadjusted data looks awful, the adjusted data is more in line with recent activity. Even the drops in the adjusted indexes are quite large and likely reflect more consumer interest in things other than refinancing and home buying during the holiday week.

The seasonally adjusted purchase index decreased by 4% from the prior week’s report. On an unadjusted basis, the composite index decreased by 40% week over week. The unadjusted purchase index decreased by 36% for the week and is 37% lower year over year.

The MBA’s refinance index decreased by 18%, after dropping by 0.2% in the previous week. The share of refinancings fell by three points, totaling 63% of all applications. Adjustable rate mortgage loans account for 8% of all applications, unchanged from the prior week.

The average mortgage loan rate for a conforming 30-year fixed-rate mortgage increased from 4.48% to 4.51%. The rate for a jumbo 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose from 4.48% to 4.49%. The average interest rate for a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage rose from 3.52% to 3.56%.

The contract interest rate for a 5/1 adjustable rate mortgage loan fell from 3.18% to 3.09%.

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