A weekly decline in refinance mortgage applications was more than offset by a surge in purchase-money activity. The jumbo-conforming spread, meantime, ballooned.
The Market Composite Index, which tracks the volume of retail residential loan applications, moved up a seasonally adjusted 1 percent in the week ended March 9.
The escalation from the week that concluded on March 2 expanded to 2 percent when seasonal factors are removed from the calculation of the index.
Data for index were extracted from the
Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey reported Wednesday by the Mortgage Bankers Association. The trade group says the survey covers more than 75 percent of all mortgage applications.
Refinance applications fell 2 percent from the preceding week. Refinance share thinned to 40.1 percent from 41.8 percent a week earlier and 45.6 percent a year earlier. The last time refinance share was this narrow was in the midst of the financial crisis during September 2008.
A seasonally adjusted 3 percent week-over-week increase was reported for purchase-money applications.
Without seasonal adjustments, applications for loans to finance a home purchase jumped 5 percent from last week’s report and rose 3 percent from the week ended March 10, 2017.
At 10.4 percent, the share of applications for mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration was more broad than 10.1 percent the prior week but came up short of the 11.1 percent FHA share as of a year prior.
Another 10.3 percent of weekly business was for home loans guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs. VA share was 9.9 percent the preceding week and 11.1 percent a year previous.
MBA reported that applications for adjustable-rate mortgages accounted for 7.1 percent of all activity. ARM share was 6.7 percent in the previous seven-day period and 8.2 percent in the same-seven days last year.
The survey had interest rates on jumbo mortgages at 14 basis points less than conforming rates. The spread soared from 9 BPS in last week’s report
and just 2 BPS in the report from a year ago. The widening spread is an indication of an increased appetite for jumbo product by investors and lenders.
