“Government refinances also declined, but by 5%, as FHA rates have not increased quite as rapidly,” Kan added. “Purchase applications remained steady despite the higher rates, with conventional purchase applications unchanged and growth in both FHA and VA segments. Overall purchase applications remained ahead of last year’s pace, continued to be supported by higher inventory and slowing home-price growth in many markets.”
The MBA’s refinance index decreased 19% from the previous week while remaining 69% higher than the same week one year ago. The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 52.3% of total applications, down from 57.8% the previous week.
The seasonally adjusted purchase index increased 1% from one week earlier. The unadjusted purchase index increased 2% compared with the previous week and was 12% higher than the same week one year ago.
By product type, the adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 8% of total applications. Meanwhile, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) share of applications increased to 19.4%, up from 17.1% the week prior, while the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) share increased to 16.7%, up from 16.1% the week prior.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) share of applications remained unchanged at 0.4% from the week prior.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances increased from 6.19% to 6.30% during the week. Rates for mortgages with jumbo loan balances increased 13 basis points to 6.39%.
Rates for 30-year fixed mortgages backed by the FHA increased 6 bps to 6.08% and rates for 15-year fixed mortgages increased 12 bps to 5.66%. The average contract interest rate for 5/1 ARMs jumped from 5.26% to 5.65%.
Xactus Mortgage Intent Index
Data from Xactus‘s Mortgage Intent Index — which analyzes aggregated, anonymized credit-pull activity across the Xactus Intelligent Verification Platform — saw a lower reading this week of 155.2 compared to last week’s 159.1. But the reading also represented a month-over-month gain of 11.02%.
“As mortgage rates moved higher, borrower intent softened this week after three consecutive weekly gains, declining 2.45%,” said Thomas Lloyd, chief strategy officer for Xactus. “Even with the pullback, overall intent remains about 3% higher than the same week last year, suggesting that any easing in rates over the coming weeks could quickly support renewed market momentum.”
