While weekly home-purchase activity descended, an increase in mortgage refinance business led overall residential loan application volume higher.
A less than 1 percent increase from the week that included New Year’s was recorded for the Market Composite Index for the week ended Jan. 13.
The index,
a seasonally adjusted measure of mortgage application volume, jumped 29 percent from the prior report when seasonal factors are excluded.
Those statistics, along with a host of other metrics, were derived from the
Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey conducted by the Mortgage Bankers Association. The survey reportedly covers more than 75 percent of all retail residential loan applications.
MBA reported that the Refinance Index was up 7 percent from the week ended Jan. 6. Refinance share, meanwhile, widened to 53.0 percent from 51.2 percent. But refinance share was thinner than 59.1 percent one year earlier.
Purchase-money applications slipped 5 percent from the previous week on a seasonally adjusted basis. Without seasonal adjustments, however, applications for purchase financing leapt 25 percent from the previous report but still slipped 1 percent from a year previous.
At 13.1 percent, the share of applications that were for mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration was thicker than 11.7 percent in the previous report but not quite as wide as 13.7 percent twelve months previous.
The share of applications that were for loans guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs was trimmed to 12.1 percent from 12.8 percent
but widened from 10.8 percent the same week in 2016.
Interest rates on jumbo mortgages were 5 basis points lower than conforming rates. The spread was unchanged from the prior week
and thinner than a negative 13 BPS the same week the prior year.
Adjustable-rate mortgage share widened to 5.7 percent from
5.5 percent a week earlier but was more narrow than 6.0 percent a year earlier.
