Mortgage application activity decreased month-over-month as the 30-year fixed mortgage rate rose. The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Market Composite Index, a measure of total mortgage application volume, declined 4.3% from February on a seasonally adjusted basis but remained 30.8% higher than a year earlier. Applications for adjustable-rate mortgages (ARM) also decreased 4.5% month-over-month, while their share of total applications was unchanged at 8.3%.

The average contract rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage increased 13 basis points (bps) to 6.37%, setting back the improvement seen over the last five months. Nonetheless, the rate remained 33 bps lower than its level a year ago. The increase in mortgage rates diminished refinance activity, which fell 11.4%. Purchase applications, on the other hand, increased 6.4%, driven by growth in both FHA and VA segments. Relative to March 2025, refinance and purchase activities were up 60.4% and 6.4%, respectively.

By loan type, applications for both adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) and fixed-rate mortgages (FRMs) both decreased 4.5% month-over-month. On a year-over-year basis, FRM applications were up 28.6%, while ARM applications rose 62.4%. As of March 2026, ARMs applications–including both purchase and refinance loans–accounted for 8.3% of total applications on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, unchanged from last month and 1.6 percentage points higher than a year earlier. The average contract interest rate for 5/1 ARMs was 5.6% in March.

Loan sizes declined across all categories except purchase loans in March, pulling the overall average loan size down 3.3% to $401,300. The average purchase loan size rose 1.0% to $450,800, while the average refinance loan size fell 10.4% to $351,000. The average ARM loan size declined 4.0% to $929,500.