Refis Ups, Rates Down but Headed Higher

Mortgage originators pulled 9 percent more pricing inquiries this week than last week. That landed the U.S. Mortgage Market Index at 274 for the week ended Friday.

The index, from Mortech Inc. and Mortgage Daily, was 252 for the week ended Sept. 9 and 304 for the week ended Sept. 15, 2010.

Refinances led the week-over-week increase in overall activity, rising 9 percent. Refinance share inched up to 68 percent from 67 percent last week. The share was 61 percent during the same week last year.

This week’s refinance share reflected a 54 percent rate-term share and a 14 percent cashout share.

Purchase inquiries rose 7 percent for the week. Conventional volume was up 9 percent, and Federal Housing Administration inquiries were 8 percent better.

The share of this week’s business that was for adjustable-rate mortgages was 6.67 percent, not far from 6.71 percent last week. ARM inquiries were 6 percent higher over the past week.

Prospective borrowers responded to radically low rates, with the conforming 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaging 4.23 percent this week versus 4.24 percent in the prior report. The 30-year was 4.38 percent at this point last year.

It looks like the 30-year will be worse in the next Mortgage Market Index report based on the 10-year Treasury yield. While the 30-year mortgage moved lower from last Friday, the yield on the 10-year Treasury moved 15 BPS higher to close today at 2.08 percent, according to the Department of the Treasury.

The spread between jumbo and conforming 30-year mortgages barely widened to 63 basis points from 62 BPS. But jumbos are priced much better than a year earlier, when the spread was 98 BPS.

The spread between 15-year and 30-year conforming mortgages was unchanged from last week at 81 BPS. Fifteen-year loans, however, weren’t priced so competitively one year ago, when the spread was 60 BPS.