The number of new applications for home purchases held steady last week, while requests for mortgage refinancing dropped by more than 10 percent, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported Wednesday. The decline in refinances is most likely due to an increase in contract interest rates for 30-year mortgages last week. According to MBA’s Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending July 24, total loan application volume fell 6.3 percent from one week earlier. But compared to the same week last year, the number of people applying for a mortgage loan is up 16.1 percent. MBA’s Purchase Index last week remained unchanged from the week before, but the Refinance Index decreased 10.9 percent, pulling down the figures for total volume. The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 52.6 percent of applications, down from 55.5 percent the previous week.

The association reported the average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages (FRMs) last week increased to 5.36 percent. The week before, it was 5.31 percent. Interest rates for 15-year FRMs averaged 4.75 percent, a drop from 4.80 percent the prior week. The average rate for one-year adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) increased to 6.66 percent from 6.50 percent.