The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances decreased to 6.51% from 6.57% last week.

Applications for a mortgage to purchase a home were 7% lower than the same week one year ago.

Applications to refinance a home loan were 4% lower than the same week one year ago.

Mortgage rates finally ticked a tiny bit lower last week, but not enough to help the ailing mortgage industry. Economic uncertainty, fueled by the Iran war, is keeping rates elevated and homebuyers on the fence. As a result, total mortgage application volume fell 0.8% last week compared with the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances, $832,750 or less, decreased to 6.51% from 6.57%, with points falling to 0.61 from 0.65, including the origination fee, for loans with a 20% down payment.

Applications for a mortgage to purchase a home rose 1% for the week but were 7% lower than the same week one year ago. That was the first year-over-year decline since January 2025.

“growing housing inventory in some local markets along with certain loan types and geographic segments are faring better than others because of lower rates on ARM and FHA loans,” mentioned Joel Kan, an MBA economist, in a release. “Applications for FHA purchase applications were up , on the other hand5 percent over the week, supported by the FHA mortgage rate being about 30 basis points lower than the conventional mortgage rate.”

Applications to refinance a home loan dropped 3% for the week and were 4% lower than the same week one year ago. That was also the first year-over-year decline for refinances since January 2025. This also touches on aspects of investors.

“Many potential refinance borrowers have been frozen out by the sharp surge over the past month. The pace of refinance applications was at its lowest level since December 2025,” stated Kan. Furthermore, experts in wall street note the continued relevance.

Mortgage rates have been essentially flat to start this week but are likely to move lower Wednesday, after President Donald Trump revealed a two-week ceasefire Tuesday night. The yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury, which mortgage rates loosely follow, fell sharply on the news.