Refi Activity Lifts Mortgage Application Levels

Refinances fueled last week’s mortgage application numbers, according to new data from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).

The Market Composite Index increased 2.9 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis and two percent on an unadjusted basis from one week earlier. But that activity was not rooted in the purchase market: the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index fell two percent from one week earlier, while the unadjusted Purchase Index dropped four percent compared with the previous week—although it was 12 percent higher than the same week one year ago. The Refinance Index increased seven percent from the previous week, while the refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 57.7 percent of total applications from 55.3 percent the previous week.

The government home loan programs were mostly stagnant: the FHA share of total applications decreased to 11.7 percent from 11.8 percent the week prior, while the VA and USDA shares remained unchanged at 11.1 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively.