Home Loan Refinance Increases

MBA – refinances increase

The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 4.9% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 4.5% compared with the previous week. The Refinance Index increased 5.7% from the previous week and is at its highest level since May 1, 2009. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 0.6% from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 1.1% compared with the previous week and was 38.8% lower than the same week one year ago. “The volume of refi applications last week was up 26% over their level four weeks ago. Mortgage rates dropped to their lowest level in the survey, going back to 1990, as incoming data continue to indicate that economic growth has slowed,” said Michael Fratantoni, MBA’s Vice President of Research and Economics.

“We are at a new 15 month high for the Refinance index. With rates this low, many borrowers who refinanced in the past two years may well have an incentive to refinance again, and this is likely increasing refi application activity.” The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is up 5.0%. The four week moving average is down 0.3% for the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index, while this average is up 6.2% for the Refinance Index. The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 82.4% of total applications from 81.4% the previous week, which is the highest share observed since January 2009. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 5.8% from 5.7% of total applications from the previous week.

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