Mortgage Apps Up 2.9%

The Mortgage Bankers Association's Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey reported a 2.9% increase in mortgage applications for the week ending Sept. 4, 2020. On an unadjusted basis, mortgage applications increased by 2%.

"Mortgage rates declined last week, with a noteworthy 5-basis-point decrease in the 15-year fixed rate to a new record low of 2.62%. The drop in rates led to a rebound in refinancing activity, driven mainly by borrowers applying for conventional loans," said Joel Kan, Mortgage Bankers Association's associate vice president of economic and industry forecasting. "Purchase applications were 40% higher than the same week last year, but the increase is skewed higher by being compared to Labor Day 2019. Nevertheless, there continues to be resiliency in the purchase market. Applications were up almost 3% on a weekly basis and the average loan size continued to increase, hitting a survey high at $368,600."

The refinance index increased 3% from the previous week and was 60% higher than the same week in 2019. The seasonally adjusted purchase index also increased by 3% from a week earlier.

"Highlighting the strong overall demand for buying a home, conventional, VA and FHA purchase applications all increased last week," said Kan.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 63.1%, up from 62.5% from the previous week, the adjustable-rate mortgage share of activity dipped 2.2%, the FHA share remained stagnant at 10.2%, the VA share dropped to 11.2% from 11.4% the previous week and the USDA share of total applications remained stagnant at 0.6%.

View the MBA's full Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey.