New mortgage refinance activity tumbled this past week, dragging down overall home-lending activity. Government lending business, though, held up.
The U.S. Mortgage Market Index from Mortgage Daily and OpenClose, which does not reflect seasonal adjustments, was 152 in the week ended April 28.
That was a 7 percent drop from the preceding week for the index, which is an indication of upcoming loan originations based on OpenClose rate-lock volume.
New business was off less than 3 percent from a year ago.
Rate locks for the volatile jumbo category plummeted from the week ended April 21, 2017, by 39 percent — more than any other category.
Jumbo volume was down 14 percent from the same week in 2017. Jumbo share was sliced to 4.8 percent from 7.3 percent a week earlier and 5.4 percent a year earlier.
The jumbo-conforming spread widened to a negative 8 basis points from a negative 5 BPS in the last report but swung from a year ago, when jumbo rates were 2 BPS higher than conforming rates.
A 14 percent week-over-week decline was recorded for the refinance category.
Refinances, however, edged up a percent from the downwardly revised level for the week ended April 29, 2016. Refinance share thinned to 27.1 percent from 29.1 percent but was slightly more broad than the downwardly revised 26.0 percent the same week last year. This week’s share was made up of a 12.7 percent rate-term share and a 14.3 percent cashout share.
The Conventional MMI retreated 12 percent from the last report to 96.
Rate locks for adjustable-rate mortgages fell 6 percent on a week-over-week basis, and sank 29 percent on a year-over-year basis.
ARM share widened, however, to 8.3 percent from 8.2 percent but was much thinner than 11.4 percent twelve months earlier.
The Purchase MMI slipped 5 percent to 111 and was off 4 percent from the upwardly revised level for the same week in 2016.
With a nearly 1 percent increase from last week, the Government MMI was the only index with a gain, finishing the week at 57. Government share was thicker at 37.2 percent versus 34.2 percent one week previous. This week’s share consisted of a 28.7 percent FHA share and an 8.5 percent VA share.
