After a brief slowdown, perhaps tied to spring holidays, mortgage application volume was back up to its increasing ways, according to the MBA.
Home loan demand climbed 5.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis (5.3 percent unadjusted) from a week earlier and 76.9 percent compared with the same week a year ago.
Unfortunately, it was just refinance activity that increased week-to-week, as purchase activity and government lending saw mild declines (people just don’t seem to want to buy houses right now).
That pushed the refinance share of activity mortgage to 79.7 percent of total applications from 77.8 percent a week earlier, despite a slight increase in interest rates.
The 30-year fixed averaged 4.73 percent, up from 4.70 percent, while the 15-year fixed remained unchanged at 4.46 percent.
The average rate for a one-year adjustable-rate mortgage decreased to 6.19 percent from 6.21 percent, and obviously remains unattractive compared to fixed-rate options.
That could explain why the ARM-share of total applications decreased to 1.4 percent from 1.5 percent a week earlier, and continues to be dismal.
The MBA’s weekly survey covers roughly half of all retail residential mortgage applications, which we know have risen dramatically at powerhouses like Wells Fargo and BofA, but what about all the small shops?
The survey does not factor how many applications are declined or submitted multiple times, so numbers must be taken with a grain of salt.
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(photo: positiv)
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