Mortgage Applications Nosedive in Late June

Demand for mortgage loans simply plummeted in the final week of June, even as mortgage rates once again moderated, according to a weekly industry index.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said the Market Composite Index, a measure of loan application volume, fell 18.9% to 444.8 in the week ending  June 26.

The decline was led by a 30.0% drop in refinance-related loan applications. It seems that homeowners are less than enamored with mortgage rates, which were at multi-decade lows between March and April before soaring in late May. Average rates have since fallen in the last few weeks, yet they remain well above 5%.

In today’s MBA survey the average 30-year rate fell one-tenth of a percent in the week to 5.34%.

"The government needs to take more aggressive action to bring mortgage rates back down to below 5 percent as that seems to be a key level for the market," said Kenneth Rosen, chairman of the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics at the University of California, Berkeley.

The Purchase Index also decreased in the week, dropping 4.5% to its lowest level since November 2008.

Refinance-related loans accounted for just 46.4% of total applications, compared with 54% in the previous week. Adjustable-rate mortgages accounted for 4.3% of loans. 

Later today we’ll receive the Pending Home Sales Index, another gauge of consumer demand.