Weekly mortgage activity bounced back from the holiday week, and it was government-insured loans and purchase financing that led the rebound.
A 10 percent increase from a week earlier left the U.S. Mortgage Market Index from LoanSifter/Optimal Blue and Mortgage Daily at 140 for the week ended June 5.
But the index, a measure of product-and-pricing inquiries pulled by LoanSifter clients, has retreated 21 percent compared to the same week last year.
Inquiries for
loans insured by the Federal Housing Administrations improved by a fifth from the week ended May 29 and were even up 5 percent from one year prior — the best week-over-week and year-over-year performance of any category.
FHA share widened to 21.0 percent from 19.3 percent a week earlier and 15.9 percent a year earlier.
Next up was purchase financing, which jumped 16 percent from the prior report. But purchase business has diminished 28 percent from the week ended June 6, 2014.
After that were inquiries for jumbo mortgages — rising more than 8 percent from seven days prior. Jumbo activity has slowed, however, 22 percent from this week in 2014. Jumbo share thinned to 10.2 percent from 10.3 percent the previous week and 10.4 percent the same week last year.
Rates on jumbo mortgages were 15 basis points more than conforming rates. The jumbo-conforming spread thinned from 18 BPS in the last report and swung from a negative 10 BPS in the year-earlier report.
A nearly 8 percent increase from one week prior was recorded for adjustable-rate mortgage inquiries. ARM activity has slowed, though, by 42 percent from 12 months previous. ARM share was 9.1 percent, narrower than 9.3 percent the prior week and 12.4 percent in the same week during the prior year.
Inquiries for conventional business rose 6 percent for the week but were down more than a quarter for the year.
The smallest week-over-week gain was with refinance activity, which was up less than five percent. On a year-over-year basis, refinances slowed 12 percent.
Refinances accounted for 52.0
percent of the latest activity, off from 54.4 percent seven days prior but up from 46.8 percent 12 months prior. The latest share consisted of a 35.2 percent rate-term share and a 16.8 percent cashout share.
Dragging down refinance share was an increase in mortgage rates, with 30-year conforming fixed rates climbing to 4.269 percent from 4.188 percent. Thirty-year rates were 4.506 percent in the same week last year.
Fixed rates are likely to be around 10 BPS worse in next week’s report based on an analysis of Treasury market data by Mortgage Daily. Rates surged today following a strong employment report.
