As mortgage applications retreated this past week, refinance business slowed to the lowest level since nearly the turn of the century. Veterans share was the thinnest since at least last year.
During the week ended May 18, the Market Composite Index moved down nearly 3 percent from the preceding seven-day period on a seasonally adjusted basis.
Even without considering seasonal factors, a 3 percent decline was recorded compared to the week ended May 11 for the index, a measure of retail residential loan application activity.
The findings were derived from the
Mortgage Bankers Association’s Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey. MBA says it covers more than 75 percent of all applications.
A 4 percent decline left refinance application volume at its lowest level since December 2000. At 35.7 percent, refinance share was the most narrow it’s been since the week ended Aug. 29, 2008, when  it was 34 percent. The share was 35.9 percent in last week’s report and 43.9 percent in the report from a year ago.
MBA said applications for home purchase loans dipped a seasonally adjusted 2 percent. The unadjusted drop was 3 percent but was 3 percent higher than the week ended May 19, 2017.
FHA share was 10.3 percent, the same as the prior week and down from 10.8 percent a year prior.
VA share
was 9.8 percent, thinning from 10.3 percent and also less than 10.5 percent a year previous. VA share is at its thinnest level since at least October 2017, the oldest consecutive weekly data maintained by Mortgage Daily.
Adjustable-rate mortgage share broadened to 6.8 percent from 6.5 percent. ARM share has thinned considerably, however, from 8.2 percent this week in 2017.
At 5 basis points less than conforming rates, jumbo rates were more competitive than one week earlier, when the spread was 4 BPS, but not as good as the 6 BPS one year earlier.
