An improvement in new weekly mortgage activity was mostly fueled by a solid increase in purchase financing. Adjustable-rate business soared more than any other category.
An indication of upcoming loan originations, the U.S. Mortgage Market Index from OpenClose and Mortgage Daily, was 147 in the week that ended on March 3.
The index, which is based on average rate locks per user by clients of OpenClose, climbed 13 percent from the prior week, which included the Presidents Day holiday.
No seasonal adjustments are applied to the MMI.
Compared to the same week last year, however, new business was down 14 percent.
Leading the week-over-week gain were rate locks for adjustable-rate mortgages, which soared by more than half from the week ended Feb. 24. ARM business has improved 35 percent from a year ago. ARM share was much wider at 10.4 percent than 7.8 percent in the last report and 6.6 percent this week in 2016.
A 24 percent ascension from a week earlier was recorded for jumbo rate locks, while the category was off a percent from the week ended March 4, 2016. Jumbo share thickened to 7.6 percent from 6.9 percent and was also fatter than 6.6 percent one year ago.
Rates on jumbo mortgages were a basis point lower than conforming rates. The jumbo-conforming spread thinned from a negative 10 BPS a week earlier and a negative 8 BPS a year earlier.
The Purchase MMI climbed nearly 18 percent from the previous report to 101 but slipped 8 percent from the upwardly revised level 12 months prior.
A less than 18 percent rise was recorded for the Conventional MMI, which landed at 95 in the latest report.
At 53, the Government MMI was up 6 percent from a week prior. Government share was trimmed to 35.7 percent from 38.1 percent one week earlier. This week’s share was made up of a 25.9 percent FHA share and a 9.8 percent VA share.
The weakest index was the Refinance MMI, which inched up 4 percent on a week-over-week basis and tumbled 24 percent from the downwardly revised level one year ago. Refinance share was cut to 31.7 percent from 34.4 percent and also thinned from a downwardly revised 35.9 percent twelve months earlier. The latest share consisted of a 17.8 percent rate-term share and a 13.9 percent cashout share.
