Refinancing activity led the way as new mortgage business bounced back from the holiday week. Year-over-year activity, especially refinance business, was solidly higher.
A 26 percent rise from the week that included Columbus Day left the U.S. Mortgage Market Index from OpenClose and Mortgage Daily at 163 in the week ended Oct. 21.
The index,
which is an indication of where upcoming residential loan originations are likely to head, has increased by 44 percent when compared to the same week last year.
Metrics for the MMI are based on average per-user rate locks submitted by clients of OpenClose.
Out front of the week-over-week increase were rate locks for refinances, which soared 40 percent from the week ended Oct. 14. Refinance business has improved by 87 percent versus the downwardly revised level for this week last year.
Refinances accounted for 43.0 percent of the most-recent week’s activity. Refinance share widened from 38.7 percent a week earlier and the downwardly revised 33.1 percent a year earlier. This week’s share was made up of a 26.6 percent rate-term share and a 16.4 percent cashout share.
Rate locks for adjustable-rate rate mortgages climbed 32 percent from the last report but retreated by more than a third from the year-earlier report. ARM share was 5.8 percent, slightly thicker than 5.5 percent the prior week but much thinner than 12.6 percent in the week ended Oct. 23, 2015.
Next up was the Government MMI, which rose 31 percent from the last report. Government rate locks accounted for a third of all rate locks, widening from a 32.2 percent share the prior week. The latest government share was comprised of a 24.3 percent FHA share and
a 9.2 percent VA share.
Conventional business increased 24 percent from a week previous.
The Purchase MMI was 93 during the latest week, rising 18 percent from the previous report and 23 percent better than the upwardly revised level a year previous.
This week’s weakest category was jumbo business, with jumbo rate-lock volume up just 16 percent. But jumbo activity was up by more than half on a year-over-year basis. Jumbo share was trimmed to 8.2 percent from 8.9 percent but was still wider than 7.6 percent a year ago.
Rates on jumbo mortgages were less than a basis point more than conforming rates, far more competitive than the 11-basis-point spread in the prior report. But the jumbo-conforming spread swung from a negative 15 BPS a year prior.
