Mortgage Applications Rise Slightly Over Past Week

Demand for U.S. home mortgages increased last week as both home purchase loan and mortgage refinance activity picked up, an industry group said on Wednesday.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said, in its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity, that demand rose 3.2 percent to 631.1 in the week ending January 26 after dropping 8.4 percent the previous week.

The index is 0.7 percent higher than a year earlier.

The MBA’s seasonally adjusted purchase index advanced 1.3 percent to 408.0, which was 6.4 percent below its year-ago level. The group’s home purchase loan index is considered a timely reading on U.S. home sales.

The group’s seasonally adjusted refinancing application index grew 4.9 percent to 1,940.2, sending it 11 percent higher than a year earlier.

Four-week moving averages of these three readings, which help smooth out volatile weekly readings, were up 2.2 percent for the market index, 0.1 percent for the home purchase loan purchase index and 4.0 percent for the refinance index, according to the mortgage company’s survey.

Borrowing costs on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, excluding points, rose 0.07 percent to average 6.29 percent. The going rate was up just slightly from 6.20 percent a year earlier.

The share of applications meant exclusively for the purposes of home mortgage refinancing slipped to 47.4 percent from 47.8 percent a week earlier.

The share of adjustable-rate mortgages climbed to 21.4 percent from 20.3 percent. While fixed rates rose, adjustable mortgage rates headed lower. Rates on one-year ARMs, for example, dipped to 5.86 percent from 5.91 percent.

The MBA’s survey covers about 50 percent of all U.S. retail residential home loan providers. Respondents include mortgage banks, commercial banks and thrifts.