“Mortgage rates increased slightly last week, but there continues to be an upward trend in purchase activity. Conventional and FHA purchase applications drove most of the increase last week as some buyers moved to act early this season,” said Joel Kan, MBA’s deputy chief economist.
Meanwhile, refinance applications experienced a 7% decrease from the previous week after adjustments for the holiday, and were down by 8% compared to the same week last year. The refinance share of total mortgage activity also fell, reaching 32.7% of total applications, a drop from the previous week’s 37.5%.
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“Refinance applications declined over the week and remained at low levels. There is still little incentive for homeowners to refinance with rates at these levels,” Kan said.
Applications for the adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) loan increased, accounting for 6.3% of total applications. In terms of loan types, the FHA share of total applications decreased slightly to 14.1% from 14.3%, the VA share decreased to 13.7% from 14.2%, and the USDA share of total applications fell to 0.4% from 0.5% the previous week.
Source: mpamag.com