Mortgage Application Activity Inches Up

Mortgage application activity enjoyed a slight uptick for the week ending June 21, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).

The Market Composite Index, the MBA’s measure of mortgage loan application volume, inched up by 0.8% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the index dropped by 10% compared with the previous week.

The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index was up by 1% from one week earlier while the unadjusted index fell by 10% — the latter was also 13% lower than the same week one year ago. The Refinance Index was essentially unchanged from the previous week and was 26% higher than the same week one year ago, while the refinance share of mortgage activity dipped to 35.1% of total applications from 35.2% the previous week.

Among the federal programs, the FHA share of total applications increased to 13.1% from 12.7% in the previous week while the VA share of total applications decreased to 13.8% from 14.8% and the USDA share of total applications remained unchanged at 0.4%.

Separately, the MBA’s monthly Loan Monitoring Survey found the total number of home loans now in forbearance declined slightly to 0.21% as of May 31.

“The performance of servicing portfolios in May was solid, with about 96% of borrowers making their mortgage payments on time,” said Marina Walsh, MBA’s vice president of industry analysis. “There was a slight decline in the performance of post-forbearance loan workouts, but the results were relatively strong with 75% of homeowners making their payments in accordance with the workout terms.”