Softening in new loan applications to finance a home purchase were out front of a week-over-week decline in overall new mortgage applications.
A
seasonally adjusted 3 percent decline from the previous week was recorded for the Market Composite Index for the week ended Jan. 27.
But when seasonal factors are excluded from the index, there was an 11 percent rise
from the week that included the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
The index was derived from the
Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey produced by the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Applications for refinance transactions dipped 1 percent from the week ended Jan. 20. Meanwhile,
refinance share thinned to 49.4 percent from one-half a week earlier and 59.2 percent a year earlier.
Moving on to purchase-money mortgages, applications fell 6 percent from the last report on a seasonally adjusted basis. On an unadjusted basis, purchase applications jumped 12 percent from the prior week and were up 2 percent from the week ended Jan. 29, 2016.
The report indicated that applications for mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration made up 12.1 percent of the week’s total applications. FHA share fell from 13.6 percent the previous week and 12.9 percent a year previous.
Another 12.4 percent of total applications were for loans guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs. VA share widened from 12.2 percent in MBA’s last report and 11.1 percent in the year-earlier report.
The trade group reported average jumbo rates that were 7 basis points less than conforming rates, no different than the previous week. The jumbo-conforming spread
was more narrow than a negative 13 BPS the same week in 2016.
Adjustable-rate mortgage applications accounted for 6.4 percent of total activity,
fattening from 5.7 percent the previous week and 5.9 percent the same week a year previous.
