The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its weekly report on mortgage applications Wednesday morning, noting a decline of just 0.1% in the group’s seasonally adjusted composite index for the week ending September 13. The totals for the prior week were adjusted to account for the Labor Day holiday. Mortgage interest rates rose on all five types loans the MBA tracks.
On an unadjusted basis, the MBA’s composite index increased by 10% in the past week. The seasonally adjusted purchase index increased by 6% compared with the week ended September 6. The unadjusted purchase index rose by 16% for the week and was 15% higher year over year.
Mortgage loan rates for a top-tier 30-year fixed-rate loan rose from 3.64% to 3.85% last week, according to Mortgage News Daily. As of Tuesday night, top-tier borrowers were paying 3.82% for that loan. The week-over-week yield on a 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose from 1.75% to 1.81% as of last night’s close. A year ago, the 10-year note yielded 3.05%.
Joel Kan, MBA’s associate vice-president of economic and industry forecasting, said:
The purchase index increased for the third straight week to its highest reading since July. Additionally, the average loan amount on purchase applications increased to its highest level since June. This is likely a sign that the underlying demand for buying a home remains strong, despite some of the recent volatility we have seen.
The MBA’s refinance index decreased by 4% week over week, and the percentage of all new applications that were seeking refinancing dipped from 60.0% to 57.9%.
Adjustable-rate mortgage loans accounted for 5% of all applications, down by 0.6 percentage points compared with the prior week.
According to the MBA, last week’s average mortgage loan rate for a conforming 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose from 3.82% to 4.01%. The rate for a jumbo 30-year fixed-rate mortgage increased from 3.84% to 4.01%. The average interest rate for a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage rose from 3.28% to 3.42%.
The contract interest rate for a 5/1 adjustable-rate mortgage loan grew from 3.42% to 3.54%. Rates on a 30-year FHA-backed fixed-rate loan increased from 3.76% to 3.89%.
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