Mortgage Applications Down by 2.5 Percent

Oct 31, 2018

Fewer people were seeking out home loans in the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending Oct. 26.

The Market Composite Index was down by 2.5 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier while the unadjusted basis, the Index took a three percent drop.

Both the seasonally adjusted and unadjusted Purchase Index recorded two percent declines, while the unadjusted index was also 0.4 percent lower than the same week one year ago. The Refinance Index decreased four percent from the previous week and the refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 39.4 percent of total applications from 39.8 percent the previous week.

Among the federal programs, the FHA share of total applications increased to 10.3 percent from 10.1 percent the week prior while the VA share of total applications decreased to 9.8 percent from 10.1 percent and the USDA share of total applications remained unchanged at 0.7 percent.

“The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage held steady over the week, but total applications decreased overall,” said Joel Kan, Associate Vice President of Economic and Industry Forecasts. “Purchase applications inched backward from the previous week, as well as compared to one year ago, the first year-over-year decline in purchase activity since August. Purchase applications may have been adversely impacted by the recent uptick in rates and the significant stock market volatility we have seen the past couple of weeks.”

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Phil Hall

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Oct 31, 2018

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