NEW YORK (Reuters) - Demand for applications to purchase and refinance homes declined last week from the highest level in nearly four years as mortgage rates rose, an industry group said on Wednesday.
The Mortgage Bankers Association's seasonally adjusted home loan application index fell 2.1 percent in the week ended February 8 to 1,063.5, after hitting a peak in the prior week last seen in late March 2004.
Average borrowing costs on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, as well as for one-year adjustable-rate loans, rose by 0.11 percentage point last week to 5.72 percent.
Both purchase and refinance application requests slipped during the week, it said.
The MBA's purchase index declined 0.3 percent to 403.9 while its refinancing applications gauge fell 3.0 percent to 4,901.5 on a seasonally adjusted basis.
Demand for loans is higher using a four-week moving average, which smoothes out volatility.
Applications for home refinancing had been particularly strong over the past month as average 30-year mortgage rates slumped as low as 5.49 percent in mid-January.
The current loan rate is still about half a percentage point lower than in the same week a year ago.
The refinance share of mortgage applications dipped last week, but still represented more than two-thirds of total loan demand.
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