Mortgage Apps Increased Slightly, Refis Up 3 Percent

The Mortgage Bankers Association's Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey reported a 2.1% increase in applications for the week ending June 18, 2021. While refinances are 9% lower year-over-year, the Refinance Index did increase by 3%, marking the second consecutive week of increases. 

According to the report, the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased by 1% but was 14% lower than the same week one year ago. 

“Mortgage rates increased last week, with the 30-year fixed rate rising to 3.18% - the highest level in a month. Despite the jump in rates, refinances increased for the second consecutive week, pushed higher by a 4% bump in conventional refinance applications,” said Joel Kan, MBA's associate vice president of Economic and Industry Forecasting. “Purchase applications have regained an upward trend over the past few weeks. Activity was slightly higher for the third straight week but remained lower than the same week a year ago. Government purchase applications drove most of last week's increase, which also contributed to a slightly lower overall average purchase loan size.”

Additionally, the refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 62.5% of total applications, from 61.7% the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage share of activity increased to 3.9% of total applications. 

Meanwhile, the FHA share of mortgage applications decreased to 9.5%, the VA share decreased to 11.2% and the USDA share remained unchanged at 0.5%.