For the second week in a row, an increase in mortgage refinance applications was more than offset by a decrease in applications for loans to finance a home purchase.
A seasonally adjusted less than 1 percent drop from a week prior was recorded for new mortgage applications based on the Market Composite Index.
The week-over-week
decline increased to 2 percent when no seasonal adjustments are made to the index, a measure of residential retail loan application volume.
The industry’s primary trade group, the Mortgage Bankers Association, reported the index in its
Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey. More than three-quarters of all applications are reportedly covered by the survey.
MBA said that applications for loans to refinance an existing mortgage inched up less than a percent from the week ended Aug. 11.
Meanwhile, refinance share thickened to 48.7 percent from 47.8 percent, though the share has substantially thinned from 62.4 percent in the same seven days last year.
Home shoppers completed a seasonally adjusted 2 percent fewer applications than in the preceding week. Purchase-money activity retreated 3 percent without seasonal adjustments but has ascended 9 percent from the week ended Aug. 19, 2016.
Consumers seeking mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration accounted for 10.1 percent of all applications. FHA share was trimmed from 10.2 percent in last week’s report but widened from 8.9 percent in the report from the same week in 2016.
Another 10.2 percent of applications were for loans guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs, down from a 10.5 percent share a week prior and 12.4 percent a year prior.
At 6.4 percent, the share of applications that were for adjustable-rate mortgages was more narrow than 6.6 percent a week earlier but much wider than 4.6 percent a year earlier.
In the latest report, interest rates on jumbo loans were 13 basis points less than conforming rates. The jumbo-conforming spread widened from 8 BPS in the last report and
5 BPS in the survey from the same week a year ago.
