Per the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) survey through the week ending December 9th, total mortgage activity increased 3.2% from the previous week and the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) rate rose one basis points to 6.42%. The FRM rate has fallen 48 basis points over the past month.
The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, rose by 3.2% on a seasonally adjusted (SA) basis from one week earlier. Purchasing activity increased 4.0%, while refinancing activity increased 2.8% week-over-week.
Despite the week-over-week 4.0% increase in the purchasing activity index, purchasing activity was 38.6% lower than the same week the previous year. The refinancing activity index is down 85.1% from the same week one year ago while having two consecutive weeks of index increases.
The refinance share of mortgage activity increased from 28.7% to 29.4% over the week, while the adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity marginally increased from 7.6% to 7.7%. Potential home buyers may begin to enter the market as home price growth stabilizes and interest rates decrease.
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