With jumbo loans and adjustable-rate mortgages leading the way, new business retreated on a week-over-week basis. But activity moved higher from a year ago.
The
Mortgage Daily U.S. Mortgage Market Index, a measure of average per-user rate locks by clients of OpenClose, was 168 in the week ended March 24.
Business slowed
by 10 percent from the previous week based on the index, an indication of upcoming originations. There are no adjustments for seasonal variations.
But the index, which reflects activity through midnight Thursday,
inched up 3 percent from the same week last year.
Rate locks for jumbo mortgages plummeted from the week ended March 17 by 31 percent — marking the biggest week-over-week decline of any category. Jumbo activity slowed 4 percent from a year ago. Jumbo share thinned to 4.7 percent from 6.1 percent a week earlier and 5.0 percent a year earlier.
The jumbo-conforming spread was a negative 11 basis points. The was no difference between jumbo rates and conforming rates in the last report and the report from one year prior.
A 29 percent drop from the previous report was recorded for ARM applications. ARM business slowed by 13 percent from the week ended March 25, 2016. ARM share thinned to 7.3 percent from 9.2 percent the prior week and 8.6 percent a year prior.
The Purchase MMI declined by more than 11 percent from last week to 117. But purchase volume ascended 5 percent from the upwardly revised level this week in 2016.
At 106, the Conventional MMI was down 11 percent for the week.
An 8 percent week-over-week decline left the Government MMI at 62. Government share widened to 37.0 percent from 36.2 percent the prior week. This week’s share was made up of a 30.0 percent FHA share and a 7.0 percent VA share.
Refinance rate locks saw the smallest drop from the previous report: 7 percent. Compared to the downwardly revised level 12 months ago, refinance business dipped 1 percent.
Refinance share widened, though, to 30.7 percent from 29.5 percent but thinned from the downwardly revised 32.0 percent the same week a year ago. The share for the latest seven-day period was comprised of a 16.3 percent rate-term share and a 14.3 percent cashout share.
