Mortgage Apps Down More Than 11 Percent

The Mortgage Bankers Association's Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey reported an 11.4% decrease in mortgage applications for the week ending Feb. 19, 2021. Last week, mortgage applications dipped by 5%.

The Refinance Index decreased 11% from the previous week but remained 50% higher year-over-year. The seasonally-adjusted Purchase Index decreased by 12% from last week and the unadjusted Purchase Index showed an 8% decrease. The unadjusted Purchase Index was still 7% higher year-over-year despite the decline.

"Mortgage rates have increased in six of the last eight weeks, with the benchmark 30-year fixed-rate last week climbing above 3% to its highest level since September 2020. As a result of these higher rates, overall refinance activity fell 11% to its lowest level since December 2020, but remained 50% higher than a year ago," said Joel Kan, MBA's associate vice president of Economic and Industry Forecasting. "Additionally, the severe winter weather in Texas affected many households and lenders, causing more than a 40% drop in both purchase and refinance applications in the state last week. The housing market in most of the country remains strong, with activity last week 7% higher than a year ago. The average loan size of purchase applications increased to a record $418,000, in line with the accelerating home-price growth caused by very low inventory levels."

According to the MBA's WMAS, the refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 68.5% from 69.3% the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage share of activity increased to 2.7% of total applications. Meanwhile, the FHA share of total applications increased to 11.2% from 9% last week, the VA share decreased to 11.9% from 13.2% and the USDA share of total applications decreased to 0.3%.

Click here to read more from the MBA's WMAS.