A modest rise in applications for home-purchase financing was more than offset by small decline in applications to refinance home loans.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, the Market Composite Index for the week ended Sept. 23 slipped less than 1 percent from a week earlier.
Even without making any adjustments for seasonal factors, the index
still moved down 1 percent compared to the previous week’s report.
The index, which reportedly covers more than three-quarters of all U.S. retail residential loan applications, is derived from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s
Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey.
MBA reported that refinance applications were down 2 percent from the week ended Sept. 21. Refinance share, meanwhile, was trimmed to 62.7 percent from 63.1 percent the prior week
but bolstered from 58.0 percent a year prior.
Applications for purchase financing inched up a seasonally adjusted 1 percent in the latest report.
Without any seasonal adjustments, purchase financing applications didn’t change from the last report but have risen 10 percent from the week ended Sept. 30, 2015.
The share of overall applications that were for mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration was 10.2 percent, the same as a week prior. FHA share was thinner, though, than 13.8 percent the same week last year.
But an increase from the previous report, to 11.9 percent from 11.6 percent, was recorded for the share of applications that were for loans guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs. VA share has also widened from 10.3 percent twelve months previous.
Interest rates on jumbo mortgages were 2 basis points less than conforming rates based on MBA’s data. The jumbo-conforming spread
doubled from a negative 1 basis point in the prior report but thinned substantially from a negative 12 BPS in the same week last year.
There was no week-over-week change in the 4.4 percent share for adjustable-rate mortgage
applications, though ARM share has been reduced from 6.9 percent the same week last year.
