Mortgage Applications Increase Marginally in December
The Market Composite Index increased marginally by 2.9% month-over-month on a seasonally adjusted (SA) basis. This was compared to December 2023, the index is higher by 10.2%. The Market Composite Index is a measure of mortgage loan application volume from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) weekly survey.
This index includes the Purchase and Refinance Indices, which saw monthly gains of 4.1% and 6.7% (SA), respectively. On a year-over-year basis, the Purchase Index showed a modest increase of 1.1%, while the Refinance Index is 31.7% higher.
“The average 30-year fixed rate mortgage reported in the MBA survey for December remained relatively stable at 6.82% (index level 682), reflecting a minor decline of 0.4 basis points,” wrote National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Forecasting and Analysis Department Economist Catherine Koh in an Eye On Housing post. “This rate is 9 basis points lower than the same period last year.”
According to Eye On Housing, Average loan sizes, excluding refinance loans, saw slight declines in December. On a non-seasonally adjusted (NSA) basis, the average loan size (purchases and refinances combined) fell by 2.1% from November to $370,300. For purchase loans, the average size decreased by 3.3% to $421,800, while refinance loans experienced a 4.8% increase, reaching an average of $304,500. Adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) also saw a marginal decline in loan size, down 0.8% from $1.08 million to $1.07 million.
