Mortgage applications fell for the second week in a row, this time down 4% for the week ending May 28, 2021, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association‘s weekly investigation of mortgage loan applications.

This week’s data was compared to Memorial Day week mortgage applications in 2020.

The overall housing index is at its lowest point since February, said Joel Kan, associate vice president of economic and industrial forecasting at MBA.

“The tight housing stock, obstacles to a faster rate of new construction and rapidly rising home prices continue to dampen buying activity,” Kan said. “The government purchasing index has fallen to its lowest level in over a year and has now declined year over year for five straight weeks. Purchase requests are down almost 2% from a year ago, but this has been compared to Memorial Day week 2020. ”

Kan added that refinancing activity fell for the second week in a row, even though the 30-year fixed rate edged down to 3.17%.

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“Even though rates were below 3.2% in the last month, they are still around 20 to 30 basis points higher than the all-time lows at the end of 2020,” he said.

The share of refinancing activity fell to 61.3% of total mortgage applications, from 61.4% the previous week. the FHA share of total mortgage applications increased to 9.6% from 9.1% the previous week, but the Virginia share of total mortgage applications decreased to 10.9% from 11.2%.

Here’s a more detailed breakdown of this week’s app data:

• The average contractual interest rate for 30-year fixed rate mortgages with compliant loan balances ($ 548,250 or less) decreased to 3.17% from 3.18%
• Average contractual interest rate for 30-year fixed rate mortgages with jumbo loan balances (greater than $ 548,250) decreased from 3.30% to 3.34%
• The average contractual interest rate for 30-year fixed rate mortgages declined to 3.16% from 3.2%.
• The average contractual interest rate for 15-year fixed rate mortgages increased from 2.53% to 2.56%.
• The average contractual interest rate for ARM 5/1 fell from 2.81% to 2.54%, with the points remaining unchanged at 0.29 (including origination fees) for LTV 80% loans.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the average ARM interest rate increases when it decreases.