A more than one-year high for new applications to refinance existing residential loans was behind a week-over-week surge in overall mortgage application activity.
The volume of home loan applications, as measured by the Market Composite Index, increased 8 percent in the week ended Feb. 12 from seven days earlier.
Weekly activity reflects revisions for seasonal variations in application activity. Without seasonal adjustments, the volume of new loan applications rose 10 percent.
The index is included in the
Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey conducted by the Mortgage Bankers Association.
MBA said that refinance applications jumped 16 percent from the week ended Feb. 5 to the highest level since January 2015.
The Mortgage Daily Mortgage Market Index for the week ended Feb. 12, which reflects rate-lock volume by OpenClose clients, climbed 12 percent from the prior report thanks to a 22 percent surge in refinance business.
At 64.3 percent, refinance share in MBA’s report was higher than its been since February 2015. Refinance share was 61.2 percent in the previous report.
The trade group reported a 4 percent week-over-week decline
in applications for loans to finance home purchases. But without seasonal adjustments, purchase business was up 2 percent from a week earlier and 30 percent from a year earlier.
Adjustable-rate mortgage applications accounted for 6.7 percent of the latest activity. ARM share
widened from 6.4 percent in the last report.
In the government sector of real estate finance, applications for loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration
made up 11.5 percent of all activity in the latest report. FHA share was more narrow than 12.3 percent the prior week.
Applications for mortgages guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs accounted for 11.7 percent of all applications. VA share was wider than 11.1 percent seven days earlier.
MBA reported that interest rates on jumbo mortgages averaged 3.74 percent — the lowest level since December 2012. That put the jumbo-conforming spread at a negative nine basis points, thinning considerably from a negative 15 BPS in the last report.
