New mortgage activity was slower last week, and jumbo business was out front of the deterioration. But government-insured volume managed a slight gain.
A 12 percent drop from one week prior put the U.S. Mortgage Market Index from OpenClose and Mortgage Daily for the week ended Jan. 29 at 120.
The index, an indication of average per-user rate locks pulled by clients of OpenClose, has retreated 54 percent compared to the same week a year prior.
Numbers from a year earlier were revised to reflect
statistics from the same data provider.
Rate locks for jumbo mortgages sank 44 percent from the week ended Jan. 22, 2016.
Jumbo business has fallen 68 percent from the same week last year. Jumbo share slid to 7.0 percent from 11.0 percent and was also thinner than 10.2 percent twelve months earlier.
Interest rates on jumbo mortgages were 18 basis points lower than on conforming loans. The jumbo-conforming spread was more narrow than a negative 25 BPS a week earlier and
swung from a positive 20 BPS a year earlier.
A 15 percent week-over-week decline was
recorded for rate locks on conventional mortgages. Conventional business has declined 58 percent versus the week ended Jan. 30, 2015.
Purchase financing activity was down 13 percent from the last report and has receded by a third from the year-earlier report.
Refinances slowed 3 percent and have tumbled by nearly half from one year previous. Refinance share widened to 75.8 percent from 69.3 percent the prior week and 69.1 percent the same week a year prior. Rate-term share was 46.8 percent in the most-recent period, while cashout share was 29.0 percent.
No week-over-week change was noted for rate locks on adjustable-rate mortgages, though ARM business has plunged by half on a year-over-year basis. ARM share was 9.7 percent, fatter than 8.6 percent in the previous report and 9.0 percent in the same week the previous year.
Rate locks for Federal Housing Administration-insured loans were up 1 percent for the week — the only category to see a gain from the last report. But FHA business has descended 32 percent from the same week in 2015. FHA share was 25.8 percent, widening from 22.6 percent a seven days prior and 17.5 percent a year prior.
Fixed rates on conforming 30-year mortgages averaged 3.79 percent in the latest report, down from 3.81 percent seven days previous and 3.99 percent 12 months previous.
Interest rates on 15-year loans were 72 BPS less than on 30-year loans. The spread was slightly greater than 71 BPS the prior week but thinned from 81 BPS in the same week last year.
Fixed rates on home loans look like they might tumble approximately nine BPS in the next Mortgage Market Index report based on a Mortgage Daily analysis of Treasury market activity.
