Despite a drop in purchase financing activity, more mortgage shoppers applied for a new loan last week thanks to a bump in refinance loan applications.
Overall mortgage applications increased last week based on the Market Composite Index, which was nearly 3 percent higher in the week ended April 1.
The index is adjusted for seasonal variations. Without and seasonal adjustments, applications for residential loans
moved up 3 percent from the previous report.
Application data was presented in the
Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey from the Mortgage Bankers Association. The survey reportedly covers more than three-quarters of all retail home loan applications.
Behind the week-over-week improvement were applications for refinances, which increased 7 percent from the week ended March 25.
Refinances accounted for 54.5 percent of all activity, more than 52.4 percent seven days earlier. But refinance share has thinned from 57 percent one year earlier.
Unlike refinances, purchase-money applications moved down from the previous report — by 2 percent both on a seasonally adjusted basis and without seasonal adjustments. Purchase financing activity was up, though, 11 percent from the same week in 2015 without seasonal adjustments.
FHA share of applications was 11.3 percent, thinning from 11.5 percent in the last report and 13.2 percent in the year-earlier report.
VA share was also down, to 12.2 percent from 12.9 percent. But applications for mortgages guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs most recently made up a bigger share of overall activity than the 10.7 percent share as of a year previous.
MBA reported that applications for adjustable-rate mortgages accounted for 4.7 percent of total applications. ARM share
diminished from 4.9 percent the prior week and 5.5 percent in the week ended April 3, 2015.
Prospective borrowers on applications for jumbo mortgages were quoted rates that were 10 basis points less than applicants for conforming loans. The jumbo-conforming spread
wasn’t as wide as the negative 12 BPS in the last report but did fatten from a negative 5 BPS one year prior.
