U.S. Mortgage Applications Eased in the December 13 Week
Summary
- Applications to purchase a house rose, while applications to refinance declined.
- Slight increase in rates on 30-year fixed-rate loans.
- Average loan size rises modestly.
Mortgage applications eased 0.7% (+16.9% y/y) in the week ended December 13, after rising 5.4% (15.9% y/y) in the week ended December 6. Applications for loans to purchase a house rose 1.4% (5.6% y/y) in the December 13 week after a drop of 4.1% (+3.5% y/y) in the December 6 week, while applications to refinance a loan declined 2.6% (+41.1% y/y) following a surge of 27.2% (42.2% y/y) in the prior week. These data are from the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey and the amounts quoted here are seasonally adjusted.
The effective interest rate on a 30-year fixed rate loan was 6.95% in the week ended December 13, up 9bps from 6.86% in the week ended December 6. The effective rate on a 15-year fixed rate mortgage rose 3bps to 6.32% in the week ended December 13, from 6.29% in the December 6 week. The rate on a 30-year jumbo loan rose 9bps to 7.03% in the week ended December 13 from 6.94% in the week ended December 6. The rate on a 5-year ARM rose 25bps to 6.21% in the latest week after declining by 50bps to 5.96% in the week ended December 6.
The share of applications to refinance an existing mortgage was 46.7% in the December 13 week down from 46.8% in the December 6 week. The largest share in recent months was 55.7% the week of September 20. The share of applications for ARMs was 5.3% in the latest week, unchanged from the December 6 week. The last time the share was 5.3% was in the week ended February 25, 2022.
The average loan size in the December 13 week was $376,100, up 2.1% (4.4% y/y) from $368,200 in the week ended December 6. The average size of an application for a loan to purchase a house was up 2.2% (2.3% y/y) to $425,400 in the December 13 week from $416,200 in December 6 week, while the average size of an application to refinance an existing loan increased 2.0% (16.4% y/y) to $319,900 in the latest week from $313,600 in the December 6 week.
The Mortgage Bankers Association Survey covers 75% of all U.S. retail residential mortgage applications and has been conducted weekly since 1990. Respondents include mortgage bankers, commercial banks and thrifts. The base period and value for all indexes is March 16, 1990=100. The figures for weekly mortgage applications and interest rates are available in Haver’s SURVEYS database.
Kathleen Stephansen, CBE
AuthorMore in Author Profile »Kathleen Stephansen is a Senior Economist for Haver Analytics and an Independent Trustee for the EQAT/VIP/1290 Trust Funds, encompassing the US mutual funds sponsored by the Equitable Life Insurance Company. She is a former Chief Economist of Huawei Technologies USA, Senior Economic Advisor to the Boston Consulting Group, Chief Economist of the American International Group (AIG) and AIG Asset Management’s Senior Strategist and Global Head of Sovereign Research. Prior to joining AIG in 2010, Kathleen held various positions as Chief Economist or Head of Global Research at Aladdin Capital Holdings, Credit Suisse and Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette Securities Corporation.
Kathleen serves on the boards of the Global Interdependence Center (GIC), as Vice-Chair of the GIC College of Central Bankers, is the Treasurer for Economists for Peace and Security (EPS) and is a former board member of the National Association of Business Economics (NABE). She is a member of Chatham House and the Economic Club of New York. She holds an undergraduate degree in economics from the Universite Catholique de Louvain and graduate degrees in economics from the University of New Hampshire (MA) and the London School of Economics (PhD abd).
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