Mortgage Applications Inch Upward

Feb 12, 2020

The first week of February ended with mortgage applications in an uptick thanks to refinance activity, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) for the week ending Feb. 7.

The Market Composite Index saw a 1.1 percent rise on a seasonally-adjusted basis from one week earlier, while the unadjusted index was up by three percent. The seasonally-adjusted Purchase Index decreased six percent from one week earlier, but the unadjusted index was up by 0.3 percent–the latter was also 16 percent higher than the same week one year ago. The Refinance Index increased five percent from the previous week, and was 207 percent higher than the same week one year ago and the refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 65.5 percent of total applications from 64.5 percent the previous week.

Among the federal programs, the FHA share of total applications increased to 9.7 percent from 9.6 percent the week prior and the VA share of total applications decreased to 10.1 percent from 10.2 percent while the USDA share of total applications remained unchanged at 0.4 percent.

“The mortgage market continues to be active in early 2020, as applications increased for the third straight week. Rates also rose, but still remained close to their lowest levels since October 2016,” said Joel Kan, MBA’s associate vice president of economic and industry forecasting. “The refinance index climbed to its highest level since June 2013, and refinance loan sizes also increased as a result of an active jumbo lending market.”

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Phil Hall

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Feb 12, 2020

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