Mortgage application activity declined during the week ending Nov. 28, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). The data included an adjustment for the Thanksgiving holiday.
The Market Composite Index, the MBA’s measure of mortgage loan application volume, dipped by 1.4% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. However, on an unadjusted basis the index plummeted by 33% compared with the previous week.
The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 3% from one week earlier while the unadjusted index fell by 32% – the latter was also and was 17% higher than the same week one year ago. The Refinance Index was down by 4% from the previous week and was 109% higher than the same week one year ago, while the refinance share of mortgage activity shrank slightly to 53.0% of total applications from 53.4% the previous week.
Among the federal programs, the FHA share of total applications decreased to 18.3% from 18.8% the week prior while the VA share of total applications decreased to 15.0% from 15.4% and the USDA share of total applications decreased to 0.3% from 0.4%.
Joel Kan, MBA’s vice president and deputy chief economist, observed, “After adjusting for the impact of the Thanksgiving holiday, refinance activity decreased across both conventional and government loans, as borrowers held out for lower rates. Purchase applications were up slightly, but we continue to see mixed results each week as the broader economic outlook remains cloudy, even as cooling home-price growth and increasing for-sale inventory bring some buyers back into the market.”
