According to this report, the total number of originated loans of all types and purposes declined in 2014 on a year-over-year basis by about 2.7 million, or 31 percent, while refinance originations declined by 55 percent.
Fed policymakers announced last Thursday they had decided to keep a key short-term interest rate close to zero in the face of threats from a weak global economy, persistently low inflation and unstable financial markets.
“Mortgage rates have remained below 4% for nine consecutive weeks and have remained range-bound between 3.8 and 4.1% since May”, Sean Becketti, chief economist for Freddie Mac, said in a release.
Applications for refinances increased 18%, while applications for purchases jumped a remarkable 9%.
The MBA’s refinance index increased by 18% week over week, and the percentage of all new applications that were seeking refinancing rose from 56.4% to 58.4%.
The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 13.9 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier.
NEW YORK, Sept 23 Applications for USA home mortgages rose last week as both purchase and refinancing applications climbed, an industry group said on Wednesday. “The 30-year fixed rate remained unchanged over the week even though there was substantial intra-week fluctuation, but we saw rate decreases in other loan products like the 15-year, fixed, 5/1 adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) and 30-year jumbo”.
The ARM share of activity increased to 6.9% of total applications.
15-year fixed rates averaged 3.08% with an average 0.6 point. The Veterans Affairs’ share of total applications was 10.0%, down from 10.7% the week prior.
Average interest rates on gross advances fell from 2.99 to 2.83% between the first two quarters of this year, which means rates are at their lowest level since Mortgage Lender and Administrator (MLAR) data was first collated eight years ago. A year ago, it was 4.3%.
Average commitment rates should be reported along with average fees and points to reflect the total upfront cost of obtaining the mortgage.