Mortgage applications decreased 2.6 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending January 29, 2016.  The previous week's results included an adjustment for the Martin Luther King holiday.

The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 2.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. 

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 59.2 percent of total applications from 59.0 percent the previous week.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($417,000 or less) decreased to its lowest level since October 2015, 3.97 percent, from 4.02 percent.

The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 3.22 percent from 3.28 percent.

"Mortgage rates fell below 4 percent in our survey for the first time since October 2015. The jumbo rate also decreased and was at its lowest level since April 2015," said Michael Fratantoni, chief economist for the MBA.

"Despite the fall in rates, mortgage application activity was likely muted by the major East Coast snowstorm, although refinance activity increased very slightly," he said, according to CNBC.

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