The one thing that the rise in refi apps cannot be attributed to is
the Home Affordable Refinance Program, said Michael Fratantoni, MBA's
vice president of research and economics.
"A flare-up of the sovereign debt troubles in Europe once again led
investors to flee to the safety of U.S. Treasury securities last week.
As a result, mortgage rates have reached new lows in our survey, and
refinancing application volumes picked up substantially as a result.
"Survey participants indicated that this was not due primarily to
HARP volume—the HARP share of refinances fell to 28% of refinance
applications, down relative to last week and last month, when the share
was just above 30% in April. The increase in refinance activity last
week was concentrated in the conventional sector, which was up around
14% for the week, while government refinance applications were up only
4%," Fratantoni explained.
The Purchase Index decreased 2.4% compared with the previous week and
was 1% lower on an unadjusted basis than the same week one year ago. The refi share of apps increased to 74.9% from 72.1% in last week's survey.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages
with conforming loan balances ($417,500 or less) decreased by five basis
points from the previous week to 3.96%. The average contract interest
rate for 30-year Federal Housing Administration-insured loans declined
by six basis points to 3.75%.
The rate for 30-year FRMs with jumbo loan balances fell by nine basis
points to 4.2%. The average contract interest rate for 15-year FRMs
declined three basis points to 3.26%.
For more details on this and other mortgage related information visit www.mbaa.org
No comments:
Post a Comment