Mortgage Applications Increase Marginally in January

The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) weekly survey, increased by 3.1% month-over-month on a seasonally adjusted (SA) basis, primarily driven by purchasing activity. Compared to January last year, the index is higher by 3.4%. The Market Composite Index which includes the Purchase and Refinance Indices: purchasing experienced a monthly gain of 3.8%, while refinancing decreased 2.3% (SA). On a year-over-year basis, however, the Purchase Index is lower by 3.4%, while the Refinance Index remains higher at 18.6%.

The average 30-year fixed rate mortgage reported in the MBA survey for January ticked up 20 basis points (bps) to 7.02% (index level 702). This rate is 24 basis points higher than the same period last year.

Average loan size (purchases and refinances combined) increased slightly by 0.8% on a non-seasonally adjusted (NSA) basis from December to $373,200. For purchase loans, the average size increased by 1.8% to $429,400, while refinance loans experienced a 5.4% decrease, reaching an average of $288,200. Adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) saw a continued decline in average loan size for three consecutive months, down 0.6% from $1.074 million to $1.068 million.