Overall mortgage business was mostly flat ahead of the holiday week as an up tick in refinance activity offset a drop in most other categories. Mortgage rates improved, with jumbo rates seeing the biggest reduction.
A less than 1 percent decline from the previous week left the U.S. Mortgage Market Index from LoanSifter/Optimal Blue and Mortgage Daily at 167 for the week ended June 27.
The index, which reflects average per-user pricing inquiries by clients of LoanSifter, has retreated 43 percent from the same week last year.
Helping to slow weekly activity were inquiries for jumbo mortgages, which dropped 5 percent from the week ended June 20. Jumbo business was down less than a percent from a year earlier.
The share of overall pricing inquiries that were for jumbo loans thinned to 9.7 percent from 10.1 percent. Jumbo share was 5.5 percent 12 months prior.
Jumbo activity was down even though the jumbo-conforming spread widened to a negative 11 basis points from a negative 9 BPS seven days earlier. The spread swung from a positive 35 BPS 12 months earlier.
The next-worst performer was the Federal Housing Administration category, with FHA-insured activity falling more than 4 percent. Compared to the week ended June 28, 2013, FHAÂ volume has tumbled 44 percent.
FHAÂ share narrowed to 15.4 percent from 16.0 percent in the previous report and 15.6 percent in the year-earlier report.
Inquiries for purchase financing fell less than 4 percent over the prior seven days but tumbled 31 percent from the same week in 2013.
A less than 3 percent week-over-week decline was recorded for adjustable-rate mortgage inquiries. ARMÂ activity has receded by nearly a quarter on a year-over-year basis. ARMÂ share declined to 10.8 percent from 11.1 percent but was wider than 8.1 percent a year prior.
Conventional business inched up a percent from the previous report but was down by half from the same week last year.
The best-performing category was refinance, with inquiries rising 3 percent. But refinance activity was off by more than half from a year ago.
Refinance share increased to 47.0 percent from 45.3 percent but was thinner than 56.5 percent at this point in 2013. The rate-term share was 32.2 percent in the latest report, and the cashout share was 14.8 percent.
Conventional 30-year fixed rates averaged 4.495 percent, improving from 4.535 percent a week earlier and better than 4.638 percent a year earlier.
Fifteen-year mortgages were priced 98 BPS better than 30-year loans, a little more competitive than last week’s 97-basis-point spread and a lot more competitive than the year-earlier’s 87-basis-point spread.
Fixed rates could be slightly lower in the next report based on an analysis of Treasury market activity. The 10-year Treasury yield averaged 2.57 percent during the week represented in the Mortgage Market Index report, while the 10-year yield closed at 2.54 percent Friday, date from the Department of the Treasury indicate. The change suggests a roughly 3-basis-point decline is possible in the next report.
