Mortgage application volume increased 48.1 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ended March 21 as refinance activity spiked, the Mortgage Bankers Association said today.
On an unadjusted basis, the Market Composite Index jumped 46.1 percent compared to the prior week and was up 41.1 percent compared to the same week a year ago.
The increase in apps was led by a surge in refinance activity, with the Refinance Index up a whopping 82.2 percent from the previous week.
The Purchase Index also increased 10.6 percent from one week earlier, and the Government Purchase Index climbed 10.1 percent.
The refinance share of mortgage activity jumped to 62 percent of total applications, up from just 49.7 percent a week earlier as the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dipped to 5.74 percent from 5.98 percent.
The 15-year fixed slipped just one basis point to 5.23 percent, while the one-year adjustable-rate mortgage moved three basis points higher to 7.02 percent.
The divergence in price led the share of ARM applications to fall to just 3.8 percent, compared to 7.9 percent last week and 15.5 percent a week before that.
The MBA’s weekly survey, compiled every week since 1990, covers about half of all U.S. retail residential mortgage applications.
While the numbers may seem fairly positive, understand that the index only includes retail originations, which definitely have increased as a result of wholesale’s exit.
(photo: rbrwr)
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