As the heart of the holiday season approaches, new mortgage business is beginning to erode. Government activity was most impacted by the deceleration.
In the seven-day period that ended on Dec. 15, the U.S. Mortgage Market Index from Mortgage Daily was 147, declining by 7 percent compared to the previous week.
The index is an indicator of upcoming loan originations based on average per-user rate locks by clients of OpenClose. No adjustments were made for seasonal factors.
A 4 percent decline was recorded versus the same week in 2016.
The latest week’s largest drop was with rate locks for government mortgages: 10 percent. But government business was 4 percent stronger than in the same seven days last year. Government share was 39.0 percent and consisted of a 25.0 percent FHA share and a 14.0 percent VA share. Government share was 40.3 percent a week earlier and 36.0 percent a year earlier.
A 9 percent slowdown was recorded for refinance business, though the category strengthened by a 10th from a year ago. Refinance share thinned to 43.9 percent from 44.7 percent but was wider than 38.1 percent in the week ended Dec. 16, 2016. The most-recent share was comprised of an 18.6 percent rate-term share and a 25.3 percent cashout share.
At 82, the Purchase MMI was down nearly 6 percent. Purchase financing activity has retreated 13 percent from this week in 2016.
Rate locks for adjustable-rate mortgages moved down 5.4 percent. But ARM activity has accelerated by 23 percent versus a year prior. ARM share was one-tenth, a little wider than 9.9 percent in the last report and much wider than 7.8 percent
one year previous.
A 5.0 percent retreat left the Conventional MMI at 90. A 9 percent drop was recorded from 52 weeks prior.
At 1 percent lower, the Jumbo MMI had the smallest week-over-week and year-over-year reduction in rate locks. Jumbo share was 7.5 percent, modestly more broad than 7.1 percent last week and 7.3 percent last year. The jumbo-conforming spread climbed to 20 basis points from 16 BPS and was also much wider than 7 BPS in the same week a year ago.
