Mortgage Applications Drop by One Percent

The mortgage market went through another mild week, according to the latest Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey.

For the week ending March 25, the Market Composite Index declined one percent on both a seasonally adjusted and unadjusted basis from one week earlier. But the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased two percent over the previous week, while the unadjusted index inched up three percent and was 21 percent higher than the same week one year ago.

The Refinance Index decreased three percent from the previous week as the refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 52.4 percent of total applications from 53.9 percent the previous week.

As for the government loan programs, the FHA share of total applications decreased to 11.5 percent from 11.8 percent, while the VA share of total applications increased to 12.9 percent from 12.6 percent. The USDA share of total applications remained unchanged from 0.9 percent the week prior.