Borrowers rushing to beat an FHA premium hike and a slight increase in refinance applications helped boost seasonally adjusted application volumes overall by 5.3% during the week ending April 15, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Overall, apps were up 5.9% on an unadjusted basis, bolstered by a seasonally adjusted 10% (10.9% unadjusted) increase in purchase apps. This brought seasonally adjusted purchases to a high not seen since Dec. 3, 2010. Government apps jumped 17.6% during the week ending April 15.
But while the four week moving average for seasonally adjusted purchase apps was up 2.5% last week, unadjusted, purchases were still down 11.4% from the same week a year ago. The four week moving average for applications overall was down 2.9% as of the week ending April 15.
The refi index increased 2.7% during the week ending April 15, possibly due to a drop in rates last Friday when the rate-indicative benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield fell to levels closer to 3.4% from levels around 3.5%.
On average during the week ending April 15, the contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages fell to 4.83% from 4.98% the previous week, with points increasing to 1.07 from 0.93 of a point. (The effective rate was still lower week-to-week.) For 15-year FRMs, the average contract interest rate dropped to 4.07% from 4.17% with points falling to 1.02 from 1.22. (All average points in the MBA's survey are for 80% loan-to-value ratio loans and include the origination fee.)
While refis were up week-to-week during the week ending April 15, the four week moving average for the refi index was down 5.7% and the refi share of mortgage activity dropped to 58.5% from 60.3%, marking the lowest refi share seen since May 7, 2010. The adjustable-rate mortgage share was up slightly during the week ending April 15, at 6.5% compared to 5.9%.
While the downward trend in yields and rates continued early this week, whether it will spur more refi apps in the MBA's next survey remains to be seen. As of Wednesday morning the 10-year yield had risen back toward 3.4% after falling closer to 3.3% earlier in the week.
