US Mortgage Applications Rise in the Week Ending February 13

According to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending Friday, February 13, the Market Composite Index—a measure of mortgage loan application volume—increased 2.8% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 5.0%.

The Refinance Index increased 7.0% from the previous week and was 132.0% higher than the same week one year ago.

The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 3.0% from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Purchase Index increased 3.0% compared with the prior week and was 8.0% higher than the same week one year ago.

In remarks accompanying the release, MBA Vice President and Deputy Chief Economist Joel Kan said:

“Mortgage applications rose last week as the lowest rates in four weeks helped to revive some refinance activity. Treasury yields ended the week lower as weaker data on retail sales and home sales outweighed better-than-expected readings on the job market for January. 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. There was a drop in purchase applications overall, although VA purchase applications bucked the trend and increased 4%.”