Mortgage Applications Take an Upswing

The mortgage market enjoyed a flurry of mostly positive activity last week, according to the latest Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey published by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).

The Market Composite Index increased 2.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis and two percent on an unadjusted basis from one week earlier. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased five percent from one week earlier, while the unadjusted Purchase Index increased four percent compared with the previous week and was 17 percent higher than the same week one year ago. The Refinance Index increased a scant 0.4 percent from the previous week, but the refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 53.7 percent of total applications from 54.6 percent the previous week.

Among the government loan programs, the FHA share of total applications increased to 12.7 percent from 12.5 percent the week prior while the VA share of total applications decreased to 11.5 percent from 12.1 percent and the USDA share of total applications remained unchanged at 0.7 percent.