Mortgage application volume rose 4.7 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ending April 3 despite a rise in interest rates, the MBA reported today.
On an unadjusted basis, the home loan application index climbed 4.9 percent compared with one week earlier and 67.6 compared to the same week last year.
It was the fifth consecutive weekly increase in mortgage application volume, an impressive run no doubt.
Surprisingly, refinance activity saw the smallest week-to-week increase at 3.2 percent; purchase applications increased more than 11 percent and FHA loan apps jumped 17.1 percent.
That pushed the refinance share of mortgage activity to 77.9 percent of total applications from 79.1 percent a week earlier.
Meanwhile, the 30-year fixed mortgage averaged 4.73 percent, up from 4.61 percent a week earlier, while the 15-year fixed rose four basis points to 4.49 percent.
The one-year ARM averaged 6.23 percent, up from 6.20 percent one week earlier, which explains the meager 1.5 percent adjustable-rate mortgage share of applications.
The MBA’s weekly survey, conducted since 1990, covers roughly half of all retail residential loan applications, which have surely risen as a result of wholesale’s demise.
The numbers need to be taken with a grain of salt because the MBA doesn’t filter out multiple and declined applications, which have also increased thanks to the harsher underwriting guidelines and falling home prices out there.
Oh yeah, and the income, asset, and employment verification…what a drag.
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