Mortgage Application Data Brings Mixed Results

The mortgage application rated seesawed for the week ending Oct. 23, according to new data from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), with significant differences between the main indexes on seasonally adjusted and unadjusted measurements.

The Market Composite Index dropped 3.5 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier, although the index increased seven percent on an unadjusted basis. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased three percent from one week earlier, but the unadjusted Purchase Index increased seven percent compared with the previous week and was 23 percent higher than the same week one year ago.

The Refinance Index decreased four percent from the previous week, while the refinance share of mortgage activity remained unchanged at 59.5 percent of total applications from the previous week. The government lending programs mostly saw downward motion: the FHA share of total applications fell to 13.7 percent from 14.3 percent the week prior and the VA share of total applications declined slightly to 12.3 percent from 12.7 percent, while the USDA share of total applications barely blipped upwards to 0.7 percent from 0.6 percent.