After three straight weeks of declines, mortgage activity in the latest week rebounded, as shown in the Mortgage Bankers Association’s latest Weekly Application Surveys, increasing over 4 percent last week. Both purchase and refinance applications were up, including a 5.5 percent gain in refinances. The jump in refinances was the result of the 30-year fixed rate falling for the third straight week to 3.11 percent – the lowest since early May.

On a year-over-year basis, the unadjusted refinancing and purchases have both declined in the past month. In the latest week, refinancing was 22 percent lower than what it was in the same week one year ago. Interestingly, the declines for purchasing were the first of its kind in over a year, that is, since May 2020, when the ongoing pandemic had first set in throughout the nation. While the declines for purchasing are relatively low (purchasing registered an average year-over-year decline of 21 percent for the last two weeks), they reflect an extremely competitive and overheated market.

On average, in the past month, refinancing’s shares of total mortgage activity were 35 basis points lower compared to what they had been in the prior four-week period.

Tags: COVID-19, home mortgage, home purchases, mortgage bankers association, refinancing