The Mortgage Bankers Association's Weekly Mortgage Application Survey increased by 1.7% on an adjusted basis, for the week ending on Oct. 23, 2020. On an unadjusted basis, mortgage applications increased by 2%.
The Refinance Index increased 3% from the previous week and was a whopping 80% higher than the same week in 2019 and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased by 0.3%.
"Mortgage applications to buy a home were flat compared to the prior week, but overall activity remains strong this fall. Applications jumped 24% compared to last year, and the average loan size reached another record high at $372,600. These results highlight just how strong the upper end of the market is right now, with outsized growth rates in the higher loan size categories. Furthermore, housing inventory shortages have pushed national home prices considerably higher on an annual basis," said Joel Kan, MBA's associate vice president of Economic and Industry Forecasting. "Refinance activity has been somewhat volatile over the past few months but did increase almost 3% last week. With the 30-year fixed rate at MBA's all-time survey low of 3.00%, conventional refinances rose 5% However, the government refinance index decreased for the first time in a month, driven by a slowdown in VA refinance activity."
Additionally, the refinance share of total mortgage applications slightly increased from 66.1% to 66.7%. the adjustable-rate mortgage share of activity increased to 2.1% of total applications, the FHA share decreased to 11.7%, the VA share decreased to 11.4% and the USDA remained stagnant at 0.5%.
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