A drop in new mortgage applications was most pronounced with refinances. A week-over-week and year-over-year thinning was recorded for adjustable-rate share.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, the Market Composite Index for the seven-day period that finished on Aug. 3 was 3.0 percent lower than one week earlier.
The index, which is a measure of the volume of retail residential loan applications, still declined 3 percent from the week ended July 27 even without seasonal adjustments.
Reporting the index Wednesday was the Mortgage Bankers Association in its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey. The survey reportedly covers more than three-quarters of all applications.
Zeroing in on just refinance applications, there was a 5 percent drop. At the same time, refinance share thinned to 36.6 percent from 37.1 percent. The proportion of refinances has been slashed from 46.7 percent one year earlier.
A 2 percent seasonally adjusted week-over-week decline was recorded for purchase-money applications.
The raw data without any adjustments indicate applications for loans to finance a home purchase were still off 2 percent from last week’s report and the report for the week ended Aug. 4, 2017.
No change was recorded for FHA share, which was 10.4 percent. But the ratio of FHA applications to overall activity was wider than 10.2 percent twelve months earlier.
The share of VA applications was 10.6 percent, more broad than 10.5 percent one week previous but not as wide as 10.7 percent during the same seven days last year.
Adjustable-rate mortgage applications accounted for 6.3 percent of the week’s total volume. ARM share thinned from
6.4 percent and was also more narrow than 6.8 percent in the year-earlier report.
The trade group’s data indicate that interest rates on jumbo loans were 10 basis points lower than conforming rates, more than the 8 BPS of the last report
and the 7 BPS in the year-prior report.
