Fixed rates retreated on residential loans. But that wasn’t enough to generate an improvement in new weekly mortgage activity.
A four percent decline from seven days prior left the U.S. Mortgage Market Index from OpenClose and Mortgage Daily at 113 for the week ended Oct. 23.
Compared to the the same week last year, the index — a reflection of average per-user rate locks by clients of OpenClose — has plummeted 45 percent.
Year-earlier figures were revised to reflect statistics from the same data provider.
The biggest decline with with jumbo mortgage activity, which sank 31 percent from the week ended Oct. 16. Jumbo business has plunged 60 percent on a year-over-year basis — also the worst performance of any category. Jumbo share slid to 7.6 percent from 10.6 percent a week earlier and 10.5 percent a year earlier.
Rates on jumbo mortgages were 15 basis points lower than rates on conforming loans, no different than in the previous report. But the jumbo-conforming spread swung from three BPS one year prior.
Rate locks for conventional mortgage dropped eight percent and sank 51 percent from the week ended Oct. 24, 2014.
Purchase financing was off four percent for the week and down 38 percent from a year ago.
A six percent week-over-week gain was registered for refinances, while the category was down 31 percent from a year prior. Refinance share climbed to 72.7 percent from 65.4 percent and was also up from 58.7 percent a year earlier. This week’s share consisted of a 44.0 percent rate-term share and a 28.7 percent cashout share.
Next up were rate locks for adjustable-rate mortgages, which rose seven percent from the last report but were down 40 percent from the year-earlier report. ARM share was 12.6 percent, widening from 11.2 percent a week prior and 11.6 percent a year prior.
The best improvement was made with rate locks for loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration,
which increased 11 percent from last week but slipped three percent from 12 months ago. FHA share fattened to 22.6 percent from 19.4 percent a week prior and 13.0 percent a year prior.
Fixed rates on 30-year conforming mortgages averaged 3.79 percent, down three BPS from the last report and 52 BPS better than a year ago. The spread between 15- and 30-year loans widened to 81 BPS from 79 BPS but fell from 93 BPS a year prior.
Fixed rates are likely to stay close their current levels in the next report based on Mortgage Daily’s analysis of Treasury market activity.
