Mortgage originators completed more weekly applications for loans to finance a home purchase — with a nice year-over-year improvement. But refinances offset the week-over-week gain.
There was no change from the
preceding week in the seasonally adjusted Market Composite Index for the seven days that concluded on Nov. 3.
But foregoing seasonal adjustments, the index, which is a measure of retail residential loan applications, slipped 1 percent from the week ended Oct. 27.
The Mortgage Bankers Association reported the index based on its
Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey. MBA says the survey covers more than three-quarters of all applications.
Refinance applications moved 1 percent lower on a week-over-week basis even as refinance share
widened to 49.0 percent from 48.7 percent. But the share has been slashed from the same week last year, when refinance share was 62.3 percent.
The report had the Purchase Index up 1 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis. The unadjusted Purchase Index fell 2 percent but climbed 9 percent from the week ended Nov. 4, 2016.
Applications for loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration accounted for 10.6 percent of the latest week’s activity, more than 10.4 percent the previous week. FHA share, however, has thinned from 11.6 percent in the same seven days last year.
At 10.0 percent, the share of applications that were for loans guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs was slightly wider than 9.9 percent the preceding week but far more narrow than
12.3 percent in the report from a year ago.
MBA reported that 6.6 percent of all applications were for adjustable-rate mortgages. ARM share was more narrow than 6.8 percent in the last report but much more fat than 4.5 percent in the year-earlier report.
Interest rates on jumbo mortgages
were 6 basis points lower than conforming rates, no different than in the last report, according to the trade group. Jumbo pricing was just 2 BPS less than conforming pricing one year prior.
