Mortgage Application Volume Retains Most of Last Week's Gains

The volume of mortgage applications submitted during the week ended January 17 slowed after a strong performance - a 30.2 percent increase - the prior week, but it was only a small decline. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said its Market Composite Index, a measure of that volume, ticked down 1.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis while gaining 0.4 percent unadjusted.

Refinancing remained at a high level. The Refinancing Index, while down 2 percent on a week-over-week basis following a 43 percent surge during the week ended January 10, maintained a 116 percent edge over the same week in 2019. The percentage of all applications that were for refinancing dipped to 61.6 percent of total applications from 62.9 percent the previous week.

The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 2 percent from one week earlier but applications for purchase mortgages were 4 percent higher than the previous week on an unadjusted basis and 8 percent higher than the same week one year ago.