Mortgage Applications Down Slightly

Mar 21, 2018

Outstanding first mortgage balances reached a total of $8.81 trillion in February

The last full week of winter left a chill in the home loan market, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending March 16.

The Market Composite Index was down by 1.1 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier, while the unadjusted index took a one percent drop. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased one percent from one week earlier and the unadjusted Purchase Index was up two percent compared with the previous week and was six percent higher than the same week one year ago. But the Refinance Index fell by five percent from the previous week and the refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to its lowest level since September 2008, 38.5 percent of total applications, from 40.1 percent the previous week.

Among the federal programs, the FHA share of total applications decreased to 10.3 percent from 10.4 percent the week prior while the VA share of total applications increased to 10.7 percent from 10.3 percent and the USDA share of total applications decreased to 0.8 percent from 0.9 percent.

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Phil Hall

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Mar 21, 2018

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