Mortgage Applications Are Up This Week, Do You Know Why?

Bird’s eye view of the entire nation:

Demand for mortgages rose last week to its highest level in eight weeks, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). Total mortgage applications rose 8.5% from the week prior, and a large chunk of last week’s activity was homeowners taking advantage of refinancing in light of job instability, a climate of rising mortgage delinquencies and bankruptcy filings, loan modification programs under scrutiny, along with record low rates, new home sales rising, pending home sales rising and home prices recovering… it’s a unique environment for sure.

All this together means people are uncertain and fearful and are preparing for that uncertain future by refinancing while others see an administration making noise in advocacy for homeownership and is confident with moving forward.

Here’s how it breaks down:

• Total mortgage loan application volume: up 8.5%
• Refinance index: up 11.1%
• Refinances accounted for 74.4% of total apps
• Purchase applications: up 41.7%
• Purchase apps down 18.8% from same week in 2008
• Government purchase applications: up 10%
• Conventional purchase applications: down 0.2%

If you’re a real numbers nerd (which I totally am), here are bonus stats for last week:

• The portion of apps that were for ARMs: down 4.7%
• Average intereste rate for one-year ARMs: down to 6.55%
• Average interest rate for 30-year fixed: up to 4.88%
• Average interest rate for 15-year fixed: up to 4.33%

What’s it like in your market? What movement in the market are you seeing be it up OR down?