Mortgage Apps Rebound After Three Consecutive Weeks Of Declines

The Mortgage Bankers Association's Weekly Mortgage Application Survey reported a 4.2% increase in mortgage applications for the week ending June 11, 2021. This marks the first increase after three consecutive weeks of declines. 

“Mortgage applications bounced back after three weeks of declines, increasing over 4% last week. Both purchase and refinance applications were up, including a 5.5% gain in refinances. The jump in refinances was the result of the 30-year fixed rate falling for the third straight week to 3.11% - the lowest since early May. U.S. Treasury yields have slid because of the uncertainty in the financial markets regarding inflation and how the Federal Reserve may act over the next few months,” said Joel Kan, MBA's associate vice president of Economic and Industry Forecasting.

“Purchase activity also rebounded, even as supply constraints continue to slow the housing market. An almost 5% increase in government purchase applications drove most of last week's gain while also tempering the recent growth in loan sizes. Purchase applications were still down 17% from a year ago, which was when the mortgage market started seeing large post-shutdown increases in activity.”  

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 61.7% from 60.4% the previous week, the adjustable-rate mortgage share of activity decreased to 3.8% and the FHA share of total applications increased to 9.6% from 9.5% the previous week.