Refis Up, Purchases Down

Last week was a mildly positive time for refinancing and a mildly negative time for the purchase market, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) latest Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey.

For the week ending May 13, the Market Composite Index decreased by 1.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis and decreased two percent on an unadjusted basis compared to the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index dropped six percent from one week earlier to its lowest level since February, while the unadjusted Purchase Index decreased by sox percent compared to the previous week—but it remained 12 percent higher than the same week one year ago.

The Refinance Index increased by one percent from the previous week and the refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 54.7 percent of total applications from 52.8 percent the previous week. The government loan programs were a mixed bag: the FHA share of total applications decreased to 12.6 percent from 13 percent the week prior, while the VA share of total applications increased to 12.2 percent from 11.7 and the USDA share of total applications remained unchanged at 0.7 percent.