With applications for loans to finance a home purchase leading the way, weekly mortgage application activity moved lower. Refinance share, though, was the widest it’s been in a year.
New mortgage application volume receded by 5 percent from one week earlier, according to the seasonally adjusted Market Composite Index for the week ended Dec. 15.
When seasonal factors are disregarded, the index, a measure of retail residential loan application activity, tumbled 6 percent from the week ended Dec. 8.
The source of the data was the Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey from the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Applications for refinances were down 3 percent. At 53.9 percent, refinance share widened to its broadest level since the week ended Dec. 16, 2016, when it was 57.9 percent. Refinance share was 52.4 percent in last week’s report.
MBA reported a 6 percent seasonally adjusted decline from the preceding week for purchase-money applications. The week-over-week decline was 9 percent without seasonal adjustments, though there was a 1 percent year-over-year rise.
The latest report had applications for loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration representing 11.3 percent of all applications. FHA share thinned from 11.8 percent the prior week and 11.5 percent a year prior.
Applications for loans guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs most recently made up 10.9 percent of the overall total, thickening from 10.3 percent. But VA share was more narrow than 12.0 percent twelve months earlier.
With applications for adjustable-rate mortgages accounting for 5.6 percent of the weekly total, there was no change from the previous seven-day period. ARM share thinned from 6.5 percent in the same-seven days last year.
Interest rates on jumbo mortgages were 2 basis points lower than conforming rates — sinking from 9 BPS and less than 5 BPS the same week in 2016.
