Mortgage Application Activity Down Slightly

Mortgage application activity recorded a slight decline in data from the Mortgage Bankers Association covering the week ending Dec. 13.

The Market Composite Index, the MBA’s measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 0.7% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier.  On an unadjusted basis, the index was down by 2% compared with the previous week.

The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 1% from one week earlier but the unadjusted index was down by 2% – the latter was also 6% higher than the same week one year ago. The Refinance Index decreased 3% from the previous week, but it was also 41% higher than the same week one year ago. The refinance share of mortgage activity dropped slightly to 46.7% of total applications from 46.8% the previous week.

Among the federal programs, the FHA share of total applications increased to 17.6% from 16.5% the week prior while the VA share of total applications decreased to 15.3% from 16.3% and the USDA share of total applications increased to 0.5% from 0.4% the week prior.

Separately, the MBA reported mortgage applications for new home purchases in November were up 7.2% year-over-year but were also down 12% from October.

The average loan size for new homes decreased from $409,942 in October to $402,873 in November. By product type, conventional loans composed 61.6% of November’s loan applications while FHA loans composed 28%, VA loans accounted for 9.9% and RHS/USDA loans composed 0.4%.