The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its latest report on mortgage applications Wednesday morning. The report noted a week-over-week decrease of 3.5% in the group’s seasonally adjusted composite index for the week ending October 23, following an increase of 11.8% for the week ending October 16. Mortgage loan rates increased slightly on all types of loans last week.

On an unadjusted basis, the composite index increased by 7% week over week. The seasonally adjusted purchase index fell by 3% compared with the week ended October 16. The unadjusted purchase index increased by 7% for the week and is now 23% higher year over year.

The MBA’s refinance index decreased by 4% week over week and the percentage of all new applications that were seeking refinancing remained unchanged at 59.5%.

Adjustable rate mortgage loans accounted for 6.6% of all applications, down from 6.9% the prior week.

Mortgage News Daily observed on Tuesday:

Any discussion of movement in the mortgage rate world these days would be incomplete without pointing out the fact that everything has been taking place in an exceptionally narrow range. While we can technically observe that the ‘effective rate’ is changing from day to day, all of the recent changes have been to the upfront costs/credit as opposed to the contract rate itself. [The dominant lender quotes have been] 3.75-3.875% … on top tier conventional 30yr fixed scenarios for weeks.

According to the MBA, last week’s average mortgage loan rate for a conforming 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose from 3.95% to 3.98%. The rate for a jumbo 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose from 3.87% to 3.88%. The average interest rate for a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage rose from 3.20% to 3.22%.

The contract interest rate for a 5/1 adjustable rate mortgage loan increased from 2.94% to 3.03%. Rates on a 30-year FHA-backed fixed-rate loan rose from 3.78% to 3.80%.

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