For the second week in a row, new applications for residential loans failed to accelerate. On just purchase activity, however, application volume moved higher.
Applications hardly changed from a week earlier, with the seasonally adjusted Market Composite Index for the week ended Nov. 27 down less than a percent.
The flat week-over-week performance followed the prior seven-day period’s decline of three percent in new mortgage applications on a seasonally adjusted basis.
That was according to the Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey from the Mortgage Bankers Association. The survey reportedly covers three-quarters of all retail mortgage applications.
The Market Composite Index, which is a representation of mortgage application volume, tumbled by nearly a third without any seasonal adjustment during the week that included Thanksgiving.
Factoring in seasonal adjustments for the Thanksgiving holiday, refinance business was down six percent from the week ended Nov. 20.
Refinance share was 56.6 percent, more narrow than 58.7 percent in the previous report.
The news was a little better for the Purchase Index, which strengthened eight percent compared to a week earlier.
But without any seasonal adjustments, purchase business sank 28 percent from the last report — though purchase application volume shot up 30 percent from the year-earlier report.
Adjustable-rate mortgages represented 6.1 percent of applications in the latest survey, thinning from a 6.4 percent ARM share a week prior.
Applications for mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration accounted for 13.2 percent of all applications. FHA share was off from 13.7 percent the prior week.
Another 11.3 percent of applications were for loans guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs, wider than the 11.0 percent VA share in the previous report.
The jumbo-conforming spread was a negative 13 basis points. Jumbo rates were 15 BPS less than conforming rates a week prior.
