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“Interest rates droppedrnlast week as a result of the ongoingrnturmoil in Ukraine and other international concerns, which in turn pushed mortgagernrates lower,” said Mike Fratantoni, MBA’s Chief Economist. “Overall application volume for conventional mortgagesrnincreased. However, there was a 5.9 percent decline in the number of applications for government mortgages, with both purchase and refinance applications declining. Withinrnthe government sector,rnthis decline was led by an 8 percentrndecline in unadjusted Department of Veterans Affairs applications, while Federal Housing Administration and Rural Housing Service unadjusted applications also fell by 5 percentrnand 3 percent respectively.”rn</p

The averagerncontract interest rates and the effective rates of all mortgage productsrndeclined during the week.  The average interest rate of 30-year fixed-rate mortgages (FRM) with conforming loan balances ($417,000 or less) decreasedrnto 4.29 percent from 4.35 percent, with points increasing to 0.26 from 0.22.  The average rate for 30-year jumbo FRMrn(balances greater than $417,000) fell six basis points to 4.18 percent whilernpoints increased to 0.23 from 0.19. </p

Thirty-year FRMrnguaranteed by the FHA had an average rate of 3.99 percent, down from 4.04rnpercent.  Points were unchanged at 0.03. </p

The 15-year FRM hadrnan average rate of 3.44 percent during the week.  This was a decrease from 3.48 percent and points were unchanged at 0.30.</p

The share ofrnapplications that were presented for adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) moved offrnof 8 percent for the first time in months, decreasing slightly to 7.8rnpercent.  The average contract rate forrnthe most common version the 5/1 hybrid ARM decreased to 3.10 percent from 3.24rnpercent and points decreased to 0.44 from 0.45.</p

MBA’srnWeekly Mortgage Applications Survey coversrnover 75 percentrnof all U.S. retail residential mortgagernapplications, and has been conducted since 1990.rnRespondents include mortgagernbankers, commercial banks and thrifts. Base period and value for all indexes is March 16, 1990=100rnand interest rate information is based on loans with an 80 percentrnloan-to-value ratio.  Points include thernorigination fee.

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