WASHINGTON - Mortgage applications rose 0.7% for the week that ended Oct. 20 on a seasonally adjusted basis from the previous week, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported.
On an unadjusted basis, the index rose 11.9% from the week before and 24.8% from the corresponding week last year.
The housing-demand index dropped 3.98% from the previous week, to 298.7, and its seasonally adjusted refinance index rose 17.76%, to 587.2. The conventional-loan application index fell 0.09%, to 423.1, and the government-loan application index rose 3.45%, to 203.8.
Refinances represented 25.9% of loan applications, an increase of 3.8 percentage points. Adjustable-rate mortgage applications represented 14.3%, up four-tenths of a percentage point.
The average interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages fell 21 basis points, to 7.58%. The average rate for one-year adjustable mortgages fell 1 basis point, to 7.42%.
