Refinancing continues to support mortgage application activity while purchase applications continued to weaken during the week ended July 23. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) says its Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 5.7 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from the prior week and the unadjusted index was up 6 percent. The Refinance Index rose by 9 percent although it was down 10 percent from its level the same week one year ago. The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 67.2 percent of total applications from 64.9 percent the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 2 percent and unadjusted Purchase Index ticked down 1 percent compared with the previous week. The latter was 18 percent lower than the same week in 2020.
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