Residential loan applications completed moved higher in the latest seven-day period, with purchase financing activity maintaining a strengthening pace.
In the week that concluded on March 3,
the Market Composite Index moved higher by a seasonally adjusted 3 percent from a week earlier.
But without seasonal adjustments, the index,
a measure of mortgage application volume, leapt 16 percent from the week that included Presidents Day.
The Mortgage Bankers Association included the index as part of its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey, which reportedly reflects data from more than three-quarters of all retail residential loan applications.
MBA said that applications for refinances moved up 5 percent from the week ended Feb.
24. Refinance share crept up to 45.4 percent from 45.1 percent the prior week but contracted from 56.7 percent a year prior.
The Purchase Index inched up a seasonally adjusted 2 percent from the last report. Foregoing seasonal adjustments, applications for loans to finance a home purchase soared 15 percent on a week-over-week basis and were up 4 percent from the week ended March 4, 2016.
“The average loan size for purchase applications reached a survey high at $313,300,” MBA said.
The trade group reported that applications for mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration made up 11.8 percent of the most-recent week’s activity. FHA share thinned from 12.3 percent the previous week and 12.0 percent the same week the previous year.
Applications for loans guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs
accounted for 11.6 percent of total applications, less than the prior week’s 11.7 percent share and the year prior’s 12.6 percent share.
Interest rates on jumbo mortgages in the latest report were 9 basis points less than conforming rates. The jumbo-conforming spread widened from a negative 7 BPS in last week’s report and a negative 8 BPS in the report from the same week in 2016.
Applications for adjustable-rate mortgages accounted for 7.7 percent of all activity — the widest ARM share since October 2014.
ARM share was 7.3 percent a week earlier and 5.2 percent a year earlier.
