Mortgage Applications Up Two Percent

Phil Hall

Dec 05, 2018

September’s pending home sales data marked a second consecutive month of increases

There was more interest in obtaining home loans, according to new data from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) for the week ending Nov. 30.

The Market Composite Index was up by two percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier, while the unadjusted index took a robust 42 percent upswing compared with the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased one percent from one week earlier, while the unadjusted Purchase Index soared by 36 percent compared with the previous week and was 0.2 percent higher than the same week one year ago. The Refinance Index increased six percent from the previous week and the refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 40.4 percent of total applications from 37.9 percent the previous week.

Among the federal programs, the FHA share of total applications increased to 10.2 percent from 9.6 percent the week prior and the VA share of total applications increased to 10 percent from 9.9 percent, but the USDA share of total applications decreased to 0.6 percent from 0.7 percent.

“Additionally, we saw a decrease in the average loan size for purchase applications to the lowest amount since December 2017—$298,000 from $313,000,” said Joel Kan, MBA’s Associate Vice President of Economic and Industry Forecasting. “This is perhaps an indication that there are fewer jumbo borrowers, or maybe first-time buyers are having better success reaching the market as we close out the year.”

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Dec 05, 2018

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