Weekly mortgage applications for refinance transactions moved slightly higher even as purchase financing activity slipped.
The volume of new applications for residential loans moved up 1 percent from one week earlier in the week ended April 15.
That was according to the seasonally adjusted Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume.
The index is part of the
Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey from the Mortgage Bankers Association. The trade group says the survey covers more than 75 percent of all U.S. retail residential mortgage applications.
On an unadjusted basis, the index was up 2 percent.
A seasonally adjusted 3 percent week-over-week rise was recorded for refinances. Refinance share widened to 55.4 percent from 54.9 percent
but slipped from 56 percent in the week ended April 17, 2015.
Applications for purchases
dipped 1 percent from the week ended April 8. But without seasonal adjustments, purchase applications were up 1 percent from a week earlier and 17 percent from a year earlier.
MBA reported that applications for adjustable-rate mortgages represented 5.0 percent of all activity, the same as in the previous report. ARM share 5.5 percent this week last year.
Applications for loans insured by the
Federal Housing Administration accounted for 10.6 percent of the latest total. FHA share thinned from 10.8 percent a week previous and was slashed from 13.6 a year previous.
Department of Veterans Affairs application share widened, however, to 12.6 percent from 11.9 percent
in the prior report and 11.0 percent in the year-prior report.
The jumbo-conforming spread was more narrow at a negative 6 basis points versus a negative 8 BPS a week earlier. There was no difference between jumbo and conforming rates in the same week during 2015.
