For the second consecutive week, fewer applications were completed for home loans. As long-term mortgage rates climbed to a seven-year high, the jumbo-conforming spread doubled.
In the seven-day period that ended on Oct. 12,
the volume of new retail residential loan applications completed dove a seasonally adjusted 7.1 percent from the preceding week, when activity was also lower.
The data is based on the Market Composite Index, which still moved lower by 7 percent from the week ended Oct. 5 even when no adjustments are made for seasonal factors.
The index is derived from a survey conducted by the Mortgage Bankers Association that reportedly covers more than three-quarters of all applications.
A 9 percent week-over-week plunge was recorded for refinance applications. Refinance share was 38.1 percent, more narrow than 39.0 percent the preceding week
and 48.6 percent in the report from a year ago.
MBA reported that applications for loans to finance the purchase of a single-family property
fell a seasonally adjusted 6 percent. The decline without seasonal adjustments was sill 6 percent, though a 2 percent gain was made from the week ended Oct. 13, 2017.
The survey indicated that 10.4 percent of all applications were for mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration, a little thinner than the 10.5 percent share a week earlier but no different than a year earlier.
VA share widened, however, to 10.4 percent from a 10th
but was more thin than 10.5 percent the same week in 2017.
Adjustable-rate mortgage applications accounted for 7.1 percent of the latest total. ARM share fell from 7.3 percent in last week’s report. But the share was bolstered from 6.1 percent during the same seven days in 2017.
As conforming 30-year fixed rates climbed to the highest level they’ve been since February 2011, jumbo rates were 12 basis points lower. The jumbo-conforming spread doubled from 6 BPS a week previous and ballooned from just a single basis point in the report from a year ago.
