Just as fast as it rose, weekly jumbo mortgage business reversed course — leading overall new mortgage activity lower this past week.
At 118, the U.S. Mortgage Market Index from OpenClose and Mortgage Daily was down nine percent from seven days previous.
Compared to a year prior, the index — a reflection of average per-user rate locks by OpenClose clients — has tumbled 30 percent.
The figures for a year earlier
were revised to reflect statistics from the same data provider.
Rate locks for jumbo mortgages took the biggest hit, falling 13 percent from the week ended Oct. 30, 2015. The decline came just a week after jumbo business doubled.
Jumbo activity was down 16 percent from the same week in 2014. Jumbo share thinned to 12.7 percent from 13.3 percent but was wider than 10.7 percent this week last year.
Rates on jumbo mortgages were 15 basis points lower than conforming rates. While there was no change in the jumbo-conforming spread from the last report, the spread swung from a positive 10 BPS in the year-earlier report.
A more than 11 percent week-over-week decline was recorded for purchase financing. Compared to the week ended Nov. 7, 2014, purchase rate locks have tumbled 29 percent.
Rate locks for conventional mortgages were down less than 11 percent from a week earlier and 36 percent lower than a year earlier.
A nearly five percent drop was recorded from the previous week for rate locks on mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration. FHA business, however, has strengthened six percent from 12 months ago. FHA share widened to 21.9 percent from 20.8 percent in the prior report and 14.5 percent in the year-earlier report.
An almost three percent decline hit refinance business, while rate locks for refinances were off 12 percent on a year-over-year basis. Refinance share climbed to 67.7 percent from 63.1 percent in the last report and 54.2 percent the same week in 2014. The most-recent refinance share was made up of a 23.1 percent cashout share and 44.6 percent rate-term share.
Rate locks for adjustable-rate mortgages were the only category to increase — by eight percent from the previous week’s report. But ARM business has tumbled 29 percent from a year ago. ARM share fattened to 11.5 percent from 9.6 percent and was also wider than 11.3 percent 12 months ago.
Conforming 30-year fixed rates averaged 3.87 percent, 11 BPS more than in the last report but 49 BPS better than in the year-earlier report.
Fifteen-year rates were 78 BPS lower than 30-year rates, no different than in the last report. The spread has thinned, however, from 88 BPS a year previous.
Mortgage Daily’s analysis of Treasury market activity suggests that fixed rates could be around 12 BPS worse in the next Mortgage Market Index report.
