According to the industry trade group Mortgage Bankers Association’s weekly application survey, mortgage applications rose 3.4% during the week ended August 10.
Mortgage applications were up 20.6% last week from year-ago levels, while the MBA’s market composite index rose from 656.6 the previous week to 678.7.
Purchase application volume leapt up 3.9%, while refinance application volume was up 2.6%.
Refinances made up 39.9% of all mortgage applications, staying unchanged from the previous week.
The news should be taken with a grain of salt however, chiefly because the MBA survey only accounts for 50% of loan originations, dealing mainly with larger retail banks that have probably seen a windfall from the demise of smaller wholesale lenders.
The MBA survey deals only with retail lenders, and with wholesale companies like American Home Mortgage closing down, new applications surge at the retail branches in response.
It’s not that the retail guys are originating more loans organically, it’s because they’re the only players in town.
One staggering statistic showed adjustable-rate mortgage volume was 21%, down from 22.5% last week and 27.2% a year ago, but still relatively high considering the current situation.
Also, the average interest rate on a 30 year fixed product, probably the most popular at the moment rose slightly from 6.41% to 6.45% over the week, while the 15 year rose somewhat from 6.16% to 6.19% and the 1 year adjustable climbed to 5.81% from 5.69%.
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