Prospective borrowers completed more mortgage applications in the week that included New Year’s than in the week that included Christmas. Refinances drove the gain.
A seasonally adjusted 8 percent
increase from the previous seven-day period was recorded for the Market Composite Index for the week ended Jan. 5.
The index, which is a measure of retail single-family loan applications,
soared 46 percent from the preceding week when seasonal factors are disregarded.
The data were reported Wednesday by the Mortgage Bankers Association as part of the Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey. MBA says the survey covers more than three-quarters of all applications.
Applications for refinances ascended 11 percent from the week ended Dec. 29, 2017, as refinance share broadened to 52.9 percent from 52.1 percent. Refinance share also widened from the same week last year,
when it was 51.2 percent.
Purchase-money applications
were up a seasonally adjusted 5 percent from the last report. Foregoing seasonal adjustments, applications for loans to finance a home purchase jumped 44 percent but were off 1 percent from the week ended Jan. 6, 2017.
People applying for mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration represented 11.8 percent of total activity. FHA share widened from 10.8 percent the previous week and 11.7 percent in the same-seven days last year.
At 11.4 percent, the share of prospective borrowers who applied for a loan guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs was no different than in last week’s report
but more narrow than 12.8 percent in the report from a year ago.
The share of applications that were for adjustable-rate mortgages thinned to 5.0 percent from 5.3 percent a week earlier and 5.5 percent a year earlier.
Jumbo interest rates were 7 basis points better than conforming rates, not as much as the 8 BPS in the last report but more than the 5 BPS reported as of one year earlier.
