More people completed applications for loans secured by residential properties this past week, and it was refinance activity that drove the increase.
The Market Composite Index for the week that finished on July 14 climbed a seasonally adjusted 6 percent from the preceding seven-day period.
When seasonal factors are excluded, a one-third increase was recorded for the index, which is representative of the volume of retail residential loan applications.
The Mortgage Bankers Association
reported the index as part of its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey. The survey reportedly covers more than three-quarters of all applications.
Applications for refinances climbed 13 percent from the week ended July 7. The boost in the Refinance Index came as refinance share widened to 44.7 percent from 42.1 percent the previous week. But refinance share has thinned considerably from 64.2 percent in the week ended July 15, 2016.
Applications for loans to finance a home purchase were up just a percent on a seasonally adjusted basis. But foregoing seasonal factors, the Purchase Index soared 27 percent on a week-over-week basis and was up 7 percent on a year-over-year basis.
MBA reported that applications for mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration made up 10.7 percent of the most-recent week’s activity. FHA share widened from 10.4 percent in the last report and 9.9 percent one year previous.
But the share of applications for loans guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs
thinned to 10.7 percent from 11.5 percent the prior week and 11.2 percent a year prior.
Adjustable-rate mortgage applications made up 6.7 percent of the latest activity, no different than a week earlier
but wider than 5.1 percent a year earlier.
The trade group’s data indicate that interest rates on jumbo mortgages were 4 basis points lower than conforming rates. The jumbo-conforming spread widened from 3 BPS the preceding week and a single basis point the same week in the preceding year.
