Following the holiday week, jumbo mortgages led an improvement in overall business. And while interest rates on home loans dipped, jumbo rates tumbled.
The U.S. Mortgage Market Index, a reflection of average per-user rate-lock volume by clients of OpenClose, was 132 for the week ended Nov. 20.
Compared to one week previous, the index increased by 19 percent. But new residential loan activity was down by 22 percent versus 12 months previous.
There are no seasonal adjustments made to Mortgage Market Index numbers. Year-earlier figures were revised to reflect statistics from the same data provider.
Rate locks for jumbo mortgages skyrocketed 71 percent from the week that included Veterans Day. Jumbo business was down, though, by a fifth from the week ended Nov. 21, 2014. Jumbo share jumped to 11.1 percent from 7.8 percent a week earlier and was also up from a year earlier, when the share was 10.8 percent.
Interest rates on jumbo mortgages were 19 basis points lower than on conforming loans. The jumbo-conforming spread widened significantly from a negative 11 BPS in the last report and swung a positive seven BPS in the year-prior report.
A more than 22 percent increase from the week ended Nov. 13 was recorded for rate locks on mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration. FHA business was 15 percent better than a year ago — the best year-over-year gain of any category. FHA share widened to 22.2 percent from 21.6 percent seven days previous and 15.1 percent a year previous.
Up next was purchase activity, which ascended nearly 22 percent on a week-over-week basis but slid by a fifth on a year-over-year basis.
After that were rate locks for conventional mortgages — rising 18 percent from the last report. But conventional activity has tumbled 29 percent from this week last year — the steepest decline from a year ago for any category.
A 13 percent improvement was made from the previous week for refinances, which were down three percent from the same week in 2014. Refinance share narrowed to two thirds from 70.1 percent but widened from 53.9 percent 12 months previous. This week’s share reflected a 41.8 percent rate-term share and a one-quarter cashout share.
The only category to experience a week-over-week drop was adjustable-rate mortgages, which fell 11 percent and were off 14 percent for the year. ARM share sank to 12.3 percent from 16.3 percent but was slightly wider than 11.2 percent a year ago.
Conforming 30-year rates averaged 3.97 percent in the latest report, down a basis point for the week and 37 BPS better than one year previous.
Rates on 15-year mortgages were 79 BPS lower than 30-year rates. The spread was 78 BPS a week earlier and 90 BPS a year earlier.
A Mortgage Daily analysis of Treasury market activity suggests that fixed interest rates on home loans aren’t very likely to be much different in the next Mortgage Market Index report.
