Dreary Numbers From This Week’s Mortgage Applications Data

The Mortgage Bankers Association’s Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending March 24 was mostly flat.

 

The Market Composite Index decreased 0.8 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis and decreased by 0.4 percent on unadjusted basis compared with the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index inched up by one percent from one week earlier, while the unadjusted index saw a two percent rise and was four percent higher than the same week one year ago. But the Refinance Index dropped by three percent from the previous week while the refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 44 percent of total applications—its lowest level since October 2008—from 45.1 percent the previous week.

 

Among the federal home loan programs, the FHA share of total applications decreased to 10.8 percent from 10.9 percent the week prior while the VA share of total applications increased to 11 percent from 10.1 and the USDA share of total applications increased to one percent from 0.9 percent.