Not only has new mortgage business increased for each of the past four weeks, but the pace of activity now stands at the highest level in eight months.
Mortgage Daily’s U.S. Mortgage Market Index, which is based on average per-user rate locks by OpenClose clients, was 187 in the week ended March 17.
That turned out to be the highest level for the index,
a gauge of upcoming loan originations, since the week ended July 29, 2016, when it came in at 199.
Compared to last week, the index increased 11 percent. New business has risen each week since the week ended Feb. 17, when the MMI was just 123. The index has risen 24 percent from the same week a year ago.
Rate locks for jumbo mortgages soared 55 percent from the week ended March 10 and were up 32 percent from a year earlier. Jumbo rate locks accounted for 6.1 percent of overall activity, widening from 4.4 percent in the last report and 5.7 percent in the same week last year.
Jumbo interest rates were the same as conforming rates. The prior week, jumbo rates were a basis point lower than conforming rates, while they were 2 BPS higher a year prior.
The Conventional MMI was 119, up 13 percent from the previous week.
A 12 percent increase from the prior report left the Purchase MMI at 132. Purchase business climbed a third from the upwardly revised level the week ended March 18, 2016.
Rate locks for adjustable-rate mortgages moved up 11 percent on a week-over-week basis and have skyrocketed by two-thirds from
a year ago. ARM share was 9.2 percent, hardly changed from 9.3 percent one week earlier and wider than 6.9 percent one year earlier.
Refinance business was a 10th better than in the last report and 7 percent more than the downwardly revised level 12 months ago. Refinance share was 29.5 percent this week, 29.7 percent the prior week and a downwardly revised 34.3 percent a year prior. The most-recent share was comprised of a 12.4 percent rate-term share and a 17.1 percent cashout share.
The Government MMI was 68 this week, rising 8 percent from a week ago. Government share was trimmed to 36.2 percent from 37.3 percent. The latest share was made up of a 27.1 percent FHA share and a 9.2 percent VA share.
