Total application volume surged 13.9 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ending September 18 versus the earlier week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).
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The MBA’s seasonally adjusted index of refinancing applications rose 17.7 percent, while the gauge of loan requests for home purchases, a leading indicator of home sales, rose 9.1 percent to its highest level since June.
Separately, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) announced the availability of data on last year’s mortgage lending transactions at 7,062 USA financial institutions covered by the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA).
“The 30-year fixed rate remained unchanged over the week even though there was substantial intra-week fluctuation”.
The refinance share of mortgage activity accounted for 58.4 percent of all applications.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with jumbo loan balances (greater than $417,000) decreased to 3.99 percent, its lowest level since May 2015, from 4.04 percent, with points increasing to 0.36 from 0.26 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. But the share of refinance loans to low- and moderate-income borrowers increased slightly from 20 percent to 21 percent.
Mortgage rates were the beneficiaries of increased jitters about the health of the global economy following the Federal Open Market Committee’s latest meeting.
10 year loan interest rates have been listed at 2.875% and an April of 3.058% today.
Nervous investors typically flock to safe-haven US government bonds, to which mortgage rates are closely related.
The average rate for a 5/1 ARM was 2.95%, down from 3.04%.
From Freddie Mac’s weekly survey: The 30-year fixed improved nicely, dropping 5 basis points to 3.86 percent from last week’s 3.91 percent.
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The survey includes more than 75% of the retail residential mortgage apps in the US according to the group. Wells Fargo stock has been slumping, partly on the overall market and partly due to the Fed’s decision not to raise rates, which likely would have meant wider loan spreads for banks.
