The Freddie Mac Weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey marked a third consecutive week of decline for most of the mortgage products it tracks. This was the seventh drop for mortgage interest rates in eight weeks.

The 30-year fixed rate mortgage was down to 5.65 percent from 5.71 the previous week, its lowest mark since the week ended February 17. The 15-year fixed hit 5.21 percent, down 0.6 from a week earlier and, again, the lowest since February 17. The survey reported that both mortgage products carried points and fees of 0.6, down 0.1 from the previous week and from the previous February 17 figure.

The 5/1 hybrid ARM was unchanged at 5.07 (with 0.7 in fees) but the 1-year ARM dropped .05 percent to 4.21 from the week of May 19. The 1-year ARM has been more volatile week-to-week than other products so the drop only brought it into a tie with the rate for the week ending April 28.

The Mortgage Banker�s Association�s Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending May 27 placed 30-year fixed rate mortgages at 5.61 percent, down from 5.63 the previous week and 15-year fixed at 5.13 percent, a .11 drop from one week earlier. The MBA�s 1-year ARM was way down, 4.09 percent from 4.21 the week ending May 20.

MBA�s Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 2.8 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from a week earlier but was up 12.7 from the same week in 2004.

Refinancing as a percent of total loan applications continued a multi-week climb, representing 41.2 percent of the market (this in spite of widespread predictions that refinancing would represent only about one-third of the market by this time). Adjustable rates mortgages, however, declined 1.5 percent to 33.3 percent of total applications, about where early 2005 predictions had assumed.