Real Estate Culture Update - News You Should Know #investment #wealth #homeownership

Real Estate Update

- Mortgage applications increased 2.4 percent from the first week in May, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending May 5, 2017.

- The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 2.4 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier.  On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 3 percent compared with the previous week.  The Refinance Index increased 3 percent from the previous week.  The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 2 percent from one week earlier to its highest level since October 2015.  The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 2 percent compared with the previous week and was 6 percent higher than the same week one year ago.  The seasonally adjusted Conventional Purchase Index increased 2 percent from the previous week to its highest level since April 2009.

- The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 41.9 percent of total applications from 41.6 percent the previous week.  The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 8.2 percent of total applications.

- The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($424,100 or less) remained unchanged at 4.23 percent, with points decreasing to 0.31 from 0.32 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value ration (LTV) loans.  The effective rate decreased from the first week in May.

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