Mortgage application activity dropped during the week ending Nov. 14, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).
The Market Composite Index, the MBA’s measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 5.2% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the index was down by 7%.
The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index took a 2% dip while the unadjusted index tumbled by 7% – the latter was also 26% higher than the same week one year ago. The Refinance Index was also down by 7% from the previous week and was 125% higher than the same week one year ago. The refinance share of mortgage activity dropped slightly to 55.4% of total applications from 55.6% in the previous week.
Among the federal programs, the FHA share of total applications increased to 19.9% from 19.4% the week prior while the VA share of total applications increased to 15.2% from 14.8% and the USDA share of total applications inched up to 0.3% from 0.2%.
Separately, the MBA reported independent mortgage banks and mortgage subsidiaries of chartered banks reported a pre-tax net production profit of $1,201 on each loan they originated in the third quarter of 2025, compared to a net production profit of $950 per loan in the second quarter.
Marina Walsh, MBA’s vice president of industry analysis, observed, “Combining both production and servicing operations, roughly 85 percent of the more than 325 mortgage companies in our sample posted overall profits. While third quarter closed loan volume was relatively flat, and per-loan production expenses rose slightly compared to the second quarter, the increase in recorded production revenue drove profits higher in the third quarter.”
