Mortgage application volume was back to its increasing ways thanks to a slight improvement in interest rates, the MBA reported today.
The home loan application index increased 2.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis (2.0 percent unadjusted) for the week ending May 15, and was up 42 percent compared with the same week a year earlier.
The refinance index increased 4.5 percent after its big slump a week prior, while purchase activity slipped 4.4 percent, unable to string together a third successive gain.
That pushed the refinance share of mortgage activity to 73.6 percent of total applications, up from 71.9 percent a week earlier.
Meanwhile, the always popular 30-year fixed decreased to 4.69 percent from 4.76 percent, and the 15-year fixed averaged 4.44 percent, down from 4.50 percent.
The one-year ARM also decreased to 6.38 percent from 6.41 percent, but still greatly out prices more favorable fixed mortgages.
That would explain why the adjustable-rate mortgage share of activity is a dismal 2.4 percent of total applications.
The MBA’s weekly survey covers roughly half of all retail residential loan applications, but does not factor out multiple or declined apps.
The retail numbers have clearly increased as a result of wholesale’s demise, so they must be taken with a grain of salt.
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