Mortgage applications increased 12% from a week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending Jan. 28, 2022.
The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 12% on a seasonally adjusted basis from a week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 15% from the previous week.
The Refinance Index increased 18% from the previous week, but was 50% lower than the same week last year. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 4% from a week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 12% from the previous week, but was 7% lower than the same week last year.
“Most mortgage rates in MBA’s survey continued to rise, with the 30-year fixed rate reaching its highest level since March 2020 at 3.78%,” said Joel Kan, MBA’s associate vice president of Economic and Industry Forecasting. “Despite the increase in rates, refinance applications were up 18%, driven mainly by a 22% jump in conventional applications.”
Kan said recent application counts have been volatile “due to holiday-impacted weeks, as well as from borrowers trying to secure a refinance before rates go even higher. Purchase applications also increased in the final full week of January, but remained 7% lower than a year ago. The average purchase loan size hit a new survey high once again at $441,100. Stubbornly low inventory levels and swift home-price growth continue to push average loan sizes higher.”
The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 57.3% of total applications, up from 55.8% the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 4.5% of total applications.
Other highlights:
- The FHA share of total applications decreased to 7.7% from 8.6% the week prior.
- The VA share of total applications decreased to 9.1% from 9.9% the week prior.
- The USDA share of total applications decreased to 0.4% from 0.5% the week prior.
- The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($647,200 or less) increased to 3.78% from 3.72%, with points decreasing to 0.41 from 0.43 (including the origination fee) for 80% loan-to-value ratio (LTV) loans. The effective rate increased from last week.
- The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages backed by the FHA increased to 3.86% from 3.69%, with points decreasing to 0.55 from 0.61 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans. The effective rate increased from last week.
- The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 3.01% from 3%, with points increasing to 0.41 from 0.39 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans. The effective rate increased from last week.
The survey covers over 75% of all U.S. retail residential mortgage applications, and has been conducted weekly since 1990. Respondents include mortgage bankers, commercial banks and thrifts. Base period and value for all indexes is March 16, 1990=100.
