“Mortgage rates moved lower with the 30-year fixed rate decreasing to 6.17%, and all other loan types in the survey also declined. Refinance applications increased across all loan types, marking the strongest week for refinancing since mid-January. However, there was a drop in purchase applications overall, although VA purchase applications bucked the trend and increased 4%.”
The refinance share of total mortgage activity rose to 57.4%, up from 56.4% the prior week. The adjustable-rate mortgage share increased to 8.2% of total applications.
The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) share of total applications was unchanged at 18.4%. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) share increased to 16.5%, up 50 basis basis from a week ago, while the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) share remained flat at 0.4%.
The average contract rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances of $832,750 or less fell 4 bps to 6.17%. Rates for 30-year fixed mortgages with jumbo balances declined 9 bps to 6.21%.
The average rate for 30-year FHA loans edged down 2 bps to 5.99% and the rate for 15-year fixed mortgages dropped from 5.65% to 5.50%. The average rate for 5/1 adjustable-rate mortgages slipped 4 bps to 5.29%.
Xactus Mortgage Intent Index
Data from Xactus‘s Mortgage Intent Index — which analyzes aggregated, anonymized credit-pull activity across the Xactus Intelligent Verification Platform — found that activity rose 2.19% week over week and was up 4.8% compared to the same week last year.
“This marks the first positive year-over-year gain since January 23, signaling a rebound after two weeks of weather-related disruption. A welcome confirmation that pre-storm strength was not an outlier — and an encouraging sign heading into the spring homebuying season,” said Thomas Lloyd, chief strategy officer for Xactus.