Mortgage application volume finally edged up, albeit modestly, as FHA lending picked up the slack left behind by flagging purchase and refinance activity.
The MBA’s Market Composite Index increased 0.5 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ending August 22, but actually fell 0.9 percent on an unadjusted basis.
Compared to a year earlier, the home loan index was off a whopping 31.2 percent.
The small increase in activity was led by a 3.3 percent bump in FHA lending, a 0.6 percent rise in purchase applications, and a 0.3 percent gain in refinance apps.
The refinance share of total application volume increased from 34.8 percent to 35.2 percent as long-term mortgage rates saw minimal improvement.
The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell three basis points to 6.44 percent, while the 15-year slipped five basis points to 5.94 percent.
The adjustable-rate mortgage share of total activity decreased to 7.9 percent from 8.0 percent the week prior as the one-year ARM increased eight basis points to 7.15 percent.
As always, it’s important to note that this index doesn’t take into account rejected and multiple applications, which can obviously skew the data given the current lending landscape.
FHA lending has been the only winner in the mortgage application story this year, and if things were to go awry there, the picture would become much bleaker.
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