A refinance burst bumped up weekly mortgage applications, while a healthy year-over-year ascension has been recorded for purchase financing applications.
Based on the Market Composite Index, new mortgage applications completed during the week ended Nov. 10 were up a seasonally adjusted 3.1 percent from the preceding week.
The week-over-week escalation was just 2 percent when no seasonal adjustments are made to the index — a measure of retail residential loan application volume.
The Mortgage Bankers Association’s Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey, which reportedly covers more than three quarters of all applications, was the source of the index.
A 6 percent surge from the week ended Nov. 3 was recorded for refinance applications. At 51.3 percent,
refinance share was wider than 49.0 percent one week earlier. But the share was much thinner than 61.9 percent the same seven days last year.
MBA’s data indicate applications for loans to finance a home purchase were barely changed on a seasonally adjusted basis and retreated 3 percent without adjustments.
Still, purchase-money financing activity has accelerated 17 percent from the week ended Nov. 11, 2016.
Of all applications completed, 10.2 percent were for mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration. That was reduced from the report a week ago, when FHA was share was 10.6 percent, and the report from a year ago, when it was 12.2 percent.
Applications for loans guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs accounted for 10.1 percent of the latest seven-day total, a little thicker share than a tenth in the last survey
but far more narrow than 12.6 percent in the same seven days last year.
The trade group revealed that 6.4 percent of all applications were for adjustable-rate mortgages. ARM share thinned from 6.6 percent the prior week but was wider than 4.7 percent the same week the prior year.
Interest rates on jumbo mortgages were 6 basis points lower than conforming rates, the same spread as in the last report and in the year-earlier report.
