With refinances leading the way, new mortgage activity moved lower in the week that included the Martin Luther King holiday.
In the week that ended on Jan. 20, the U.S Mortgage Market Index from OpenClose and Mortgage Daily landed at 122.
The index, an indication of upcoming residential loan originations, retreated nearly 7 percent compared to the previous week.
A 10 percent decline was recorded from the same week last year for the index.
There are no seasonal adjustments to the index, which is a measure of average rate locks by OpenClose clients.
Leading the week-over-week drop were rate locks for refinances, which fell 12 percent. Refinance business was up 9 percent, though, from the downwardly revised level for week ended Jan. 22, 2016.
Refinance share thinned to 41.2 percent from 43.5 percent a week earlier but widened from the downwardly revised 34.2 percent a year earlier. This week’s share consisted of a 25.8 percent rate-term share and a 15.4 percent cashout share.
The Government MMI was 45, down 8 percent from the week ended Jan. 13. Government share was trimmed to 36.9 percent from 37.2 percent. The most-recent share was comprised of a 30.0 percent FHA share and a 6.9 percent VA share.
A 6 percent week-over-week decline left the Conventional MMI at 77.
At 72, the Purchase MMI slipped 3 percent from the last report and sank by a fifth from the upwardly revised level one year earlier.
Rate locks for adjustable-rate mortgages rose 8 percent from last week’s report but fell 6 percent from the same week in 2016. ARM share
widened to 9.0 percent from 7.7 percent and was also thicker than 8.6 percent this week last year.
Turning in the best week-over-week performance were rate locks for jumbo mortgages, which jumped 18 percent. Still, jumbo business was down 8 percent from 12 months ago. Jumbo share thickened to 11.2 percent from 8.9 percent and was slightly wider than 11.0 percent a year ago.
Interest rates on jumbo loans
were 7 basis points less than conforming rates. The jumbo-conforming spread thinned from a negative 9 BPS a week earlier and a negative 25 BPS a year earlier.
