Mortgage applications decreased 13.1% for the week ending Feb. 18 to the lowest level since December 2019, as mortgage rates eclipsed the 4% mark.
The Mortgage Bankers Association‘s seasonally adjusted refi index fell 15.6% from the previous week, bringing its share of total applications to almost equal the purchases share at 50%. Meanwhile, the purchase index dropped 10.1%, falling again for the third straight week.
Compared to the same week one year ago, mortgage apps overall dropped 41%, with a sharp decline in refi (-56.4%) compared to purchase (-5.4%). The survey, conducted weekly since 1990, covers over 75% of all U.S. retail residential mortgage applications.
According to Joel Kan, MBA’s associate vice president of economic and industry forecasting, the 30-year fixed rate increased almost a full percentage point in comparison to one year ago.
The trade group estimates that the average contract 30-year fixed-rate mortgage for conforming loans ($647,200 or less) increased to 4.06% from 4.05% the week prior. For jumbo mortgage loans (greater than $647,200), rates rose to 3.84% from 3.81% the week prior.
“Mortgage applications dropped to their lowest level since December 2019 last week, as mortgage rates continued to inch higher,” Kan said. “Higher mortgage rates have quickly shut off refinances, with activity down in six of the first seven weeks of 2022.”
How to solve purchase loan processing challenges
By equipping your teams with tools and data sources that instantly give them the data needed to perform their work, your organization can increase efficiency and compliance at the same time.
Presented by: Closepin
The survey showed that the refi share of mortgage activity decreased to 50.1% of total applications last week, from 52.8% the previous week. VA apps rose to 9.9% from 9.3% in the same period.
The FHA share of total applications increased to 8.7% from 8.3% the prior week. Meanwhile, the adjustable-rate mortgage share of activity increased from 5% to 5.1% and the USDA held steady at 0.4%.
Purchases applications, already constrained by elevated sales prices and tight inventory, have also been impacted by higher rates, Kan said. “While the average loan size did not increase this week, it remained close to the survey’s record high.” The average loan size was at $453,000.
Economists had predicted rates would rise in 2022 as the overall economy stabilized, reducing mortgage applications.
For the coming weeks, Kan told HousingWire that If conditions stay in the current state, we’ll certainly see higher rates. However, rates could quickly head in the other direction, “if something abroad rocks the boat,” such as an armed conflict with Russia and Ukraine, an emergent Covid variant, or a sudden change in certain commodity prices.
LOS ANGELES — The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate rose this week, snapping a three-week pullback after reaching a high for the year in early June.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate on the benchmark 30-year home loan rose to 6.71% from 6.67% last week. A year ago, the rate averaged 5.70%.
The increase brings the average rate back to where it was three weeks ago. On June 1, it averaged 6.79%, its highest level so far this year.
High rates can add hundreds of dollars a month in costs for borrowers, limiting how much they can afford in a market that remains unaffordable to many Americans after years of soaring home prices and limited housing inventory.
The median monthly payment listed on applications for home purchase loans in May rose to $2,165, up 14.1% from a year ago and a 2.5% increase from April, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Thursday.
The average rate on a 30-year home loan is still more than double what it was two years ago, when the ultra-low rates spurred a wave of home sales and refinancing. The far higher rates now are contributing to the low level of available homes by discouraging homeowners who locked in those lower borrowing costs two years ago from selling.
The dearth of properties on the market is also a key reason home sales have been slow this year. Last month, sales of previously occupied U.S. homes were down 20.4% from as year earlier, marking 10 consecutive months of annual declines of 20% or more, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Low mortgage rates helped fuel the housing market for much of the past decade, easing the way for borrowers to finance ever-higher home prices. That trend began to reverse a little over a year ago, when the Federal Reserve began to hike its key short-term rate in a bid to slow the economy to lower inflation.
Global demand for U.S. Treasurys, which lenders use as a guide to pricing loans, investors’ expectations for future inflation and what the Fed does with interest rates influence rates on home loans.
All told, the Fed raised its benchmark rate 10 times, starting in March 2022. The central bank opted to forgo another increase at its meeting of policymakers earlier this month. Still, the Fed warned that it could raise interest rates two more times this year in its battle against inflation.
That open-ended approach has heightened uncertainty about the Fed’s next moves, which could lead to more volatile moves for mortgage rates.
The average rate on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with those refinancing their homes, also rose this week, increasing to 6.06% from 6.03% last week. A year ago, it averaged 4.83%, Freddie Mac said.
Housing inventory finally broke under 2022 levels last week. To give you an idea how different this year is from last year, last week in 2022, active listings grew 30,940 while this year they only grew 5,848. Mortgage rates rose last week after the better-than-anticipated jobless claims data but even with higher rates, we also had a third week of positive purchase application data.
Here’s a quick rundown of last week:
Active inventory grew by a disappointing 5,848 weekly
Mortgage rates went above 7% again after better labor data
Purchase application data showed 3% growth week to week
Weekly housing inventory
On May 15, I went on CNBC and talked about how inventory growth in 2023 resembled a zombie from the show The Walking Dead, slowly trying to rise from the grave. Since May 15, that trend has continued to the point that inventory in America is now negative year over year.
We have often discussed that the housing market dynamics changed starting Nov. 9, 2022, and today you can see the final result of that dynamic shift as inventory is now negative versus the 2022 data — all before July 4th. I recently recapped this crazy period on the HousingWire Daily podcast, going into detail about what happened in housing over the last year.
Weekly inventory change (June 23-30): Inventory rose from 459,907-465,755
Same week last year (June 24-July 1): Inventory rose from 441,106 to 472,046
The inventory bottom for 2022 was 240,194
The inventory peak for 2023 so far is 472,688
For context, active listings for this week in 2015 were 1,183,390
Seeing negative year-over-year inventory before July 4 would be a big deal if last year wasn’t so crazy. However, I need to put some context into what happened in 2022. In March of 2022 we had the lowest inventory levels ever recorded in history. Then in a short amount time, we had the biggest and fastest mortgage rate spike in history, which facilitated the biggest one-year crash in home sales in history, which helped inventory grow faster than normal in 2022.
So the fact that housing demand stabilized and inventory is now negative year over year needs the context that 2022 was a once-in-a-lifetime event. As you can see in the chart below, 2023 inventory growth is very slow compared to 2022.
The other big story with housing inventory is that new listing data has been trending negative year over year since the end of June 2022. A traditional seller is also a traditional buyer, and certain homeowners have refused to buy their next home with mortgage rates above 6%.
We had new listings growth from 2021 to 2022, but that’s not the case this year. This is another variable contributing to slow inventory growth, which has now turned negative in the weekly listings.
Compare the new listings data last week to the same week in recent years:
2023: 62,466
2022: 91,530
2021: 80,289
My concern lately is that we have seen four straight weeks of mild declines and are about to head into the seasonal decline period of new listings. This is one data line I will track like a hawk because it will be a negative for the housing market if this data line makes a noticeable year-over-year decline trend in the second half of 2023.
The 10-year yield and mortgage rates
For those who have followed the weekly Housing Market Tracker articles, I always focus on jobless claims data as it’s the critical data line at this point of the economic cycle for me and my forecast in 2023 for mortgage rates.
Last week we had a big move in the 10-year yield because jobless claims came in better than anticipated, and bond traders were caught off guard selling bonds on the news and sending mortgage rates above 7% again. As you can see in the chart below, that big spike was really about jobless claims getting better.
The following day, the PCE inflation data showed a cooling down in headline inflation year over year. Core PCE inflation is a bit more sticky than headline inflation, however, bond yields fell after that report and bounced back at the end of the day.
In my 2023 forecast, I wrote that if the economy stays firm, the 10-year yield range should be between 3.21% and 4.25%, equating tomortgage rates between 5.75% and 7.25%. As long as jobless claims trend below 323,000 on the four-week moving average, the labor market stays firm, which means the economy remains healthy. Jobless claims have stayed below this range all year, and job openings are still at 10 million.
I have also stressed that the 10-year level between 3.37% and 3.42% would be hard to break lower. I call it theGandalf line in the sand: You shall not pass. The setup for the 10-year yield to stay in the range is intact.
The counter to my 10-year yield range would be if the economy here or worldwide starts to accelerate higher; that would be a valid premise to get the 10-year yield above 4.25%. Considering our economy this year, the 10-year yield and mortgage rates look about right to me.
Now the one thing that has changed in 2023 is that since the banking crisis, the spreads between the 10-year and mortgage rates have worsened, making mortgage rates higher than I anticipated versus the 10-year yield, which is not a positive for the housing market.
We haven’t seen anything in the data showing that it’s been improving recently. This is a big deal as we have seen housing inventory not get much traction with higher rates and hopefully in the future, lower rates can entice some sellers to move.
On jobless claims data, I always stress using the four-week moving average with this data line because we do have times when this data line can get hectic week to week. Therefore, I only believe the low jobless claims print once I see weeks of this data line improving. So, it will be critical over the next two weeks to see if this decline was a one-time blip in the data, which we have seen from time to time. As you can see below, that was a significant drop week to week, which looks abnormal to me.
Purchase application data
Purchase application data has surprised people with three weeks in a row of growth, while mortgage rates have been near 7% during this period. This now makes the positive count since Nov. 9, 2022, 20 positive prints vs. 11 negative prints. The year-to-date numbers are 13 positive vs. 11 negatives after making some holiday adjustments to the data line.
What do these numbers mean? They just mean that housing data has stabilized; nothing in the data shows decent growth after that first good move from November to February. However, the fact that housing demand has stabilized is a big deal because last year, we did have a waterfall collapse in the data, as shown in the chart below. The only downside to this is that we haven’t had the housing inventory growth I would like.
Now the year-over-year decline was down to -21%, which was the lowest since Aug. 24, 2022. However, we all have to remember that the second half of 2023 will have much easier comps, so even if demand stayed the same the rest of the year we will have some positive year-over-year data at some point.
Be careful in reading too much into the better year-over-year data we will see in the future. The most recent pending home sales print came in as a miss from estimates, but the existing home sales data is still trending in the range I thought it would be in since I believed that first big print we had a few months ago was going to be the peak for year. When demand is coming back in a big way, purchase apps will be positive for a majority of the weeks as we are working from such low levels today historically.
The week ahead: Jobs, jobs and jobs data
Yes, it’s jobs week once again and with four labor reports coming up on this short holiday week, we’ll be able to see if the Federal Reserve is getting what it wants — a softer labor market. Recently, Fed Chair Powell once again stressed that the labor market is too tight and that softer labor is the way to get inflation down to the Fed’s 2% core PCE target.
Well, we have four reports this week: the job openings data (JOLTS), the ADP jobs report, jobless claims and the big one on Friday — the BLS job report — so we’ll see what happens.
So much of my COVID-19 recovery model was based on the labor dynamics being much different now, since I was the only person talking about job openings getting to 10 million in this recovery. Today as I write this, we are still at 10 million job openings, as the chart below shows.
I have a firm belief that the Fed doesn’t fear a big job-loss recession as long as job openings are this high. What they have enjoyed seeing is wage growth cooling down, as shown in the BLS job reports for 18 months now. So, for this week, we always focus on jobless claims data over everything else, but be mindful of the job openings data since the Fed wants to see this go down, and the wage growth in the BLS jobs report data.
Depositories gained ground in housing finance overall in 2022 — just as they did in the top 10 rankings for that year — but nonbanks remain the main players, new national statistics from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act confirm.
Nonbanks controlled 60.2% of the one- to four-family market during the year but higher rates that eroded loan volumes and a wave of industry consolidation reduced their share from 63.9% a year earlier, increasing that of their depository counterparts to 39.8% from 36.4%.
The share of the mortgage market held by nonbanks hasn’t been this low since 2019, when it was 56.4%.
Overall, the mortgage market contracted by 2.63%, according to the snapshot of numbers from the HMDA’s national data set that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council released Thursday.
The number of entities reporting into HMDA dropped to 4,338 from 4,460 and could fall further, depending on how much industry contraction is offset by new requirements that reduce the reporting threshold for banks regulated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
The new numbers released also show that the historically low share of purchase mortgages made to Black borrowers rose to 8.1% from 7.9% during 2022, when several Biden administration initiatives called for more equitable lending across racial and ethnic groups.
Denial rates, however, remained particularly high for Black consumers trying to achieve homeownership at 16.4%, compared to 11.1% for Hispanic households, 9.2% for Asian consumers and 5.8% for white loan applicants.
The average 30-year-fixed mortgage rate averaged 3.89% for the week ending Feb. 24, down three basis points from the prior week, according to Freddie Mac‘s latest mortgage survey.
“Even with this week’s decline, mortgage rates have increased more than a full percent over the last six months,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “Overall economic growth remains strong, but rising inflation is already impacting consumer sentiment, which has markedly declined in recent months. As we enter the spring homebuying season with higher mortgage rates and continued low inventory, we expect home price growth to remain firm before cooling off later this year.”
At this time last year, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 2.97% and originators were pumping out near-record volume, largely due to the strength of refinancings. Today, refis have mostly dried up and originators are desperately slashing costs to rescue falling margins.
Mortgage rates typically move in concert with the 10-year Treasury yield, which notched 1.94% on Wednesday, down from 2.03% the prior week. The 15-year-fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.15% last week, up from 2.93% the week prior. A year ago at this time, it averaged 2.21%.
Mortgage applications decreased 13.1% for the week ending Feb. 18 to the lowest level since December 2019, as mortgage rates eclipsed the 4% mark.
The Mortgage Bankers Association‘s seasonally adjusted refi index fell 15.6% from the previous week, bringing its share of total applications to almost equal the purchases share at 50%. Meanwhile, the purchase index dropped 10.1%, falling again for the third straight week.
Lenders, are you prepared for 2022’s challenges?
As lenders navigate through increased competition and fraud risk, it’s crucial they find solutions that balance workflow improvement.
Presented by: DataVerify
Compared to the same week one year ago, mortgage apps overall dropped 41%, with a sharp decline in refi (-56.4%) compared to purchase (-5.4%). The survey, conducted weekly since 1990, covers over 75% of all U.S. retail residential mortgage applications.
Economists had predicted rates would gradually increase in 2022 as the overall economy stabilized – but would still be below 4% for much of the year. However, rates rose faster than expected.
Rates, however, could quickly head in the other direction given Russia’s invasion of Ukraine this week.
“Bad news for the general economy is paradoxically good for the housing market in so far as rates would decline,” Len Kiefer, deputy chief economist of Freddie Mac, told HousingWire last week.
Mortgage applications increased 12% from the previous week due to a surprising uptick in demand for “refis” as borrowers try to secure a lower rate, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) survey for the week ending Jan. 28.
The seasonally adjusted Refinance Index rose 18.4% in the same period. Meanwhile, the Purchase Index increased 4%.
Compared to the same week one year ago, mortgage apps overall dropped 37%, with a sharp decline in refinance (-50.4%) compared to purchase (-6.7%).
According to Joel Kan, MBA’s associate vice president of economic and industry forecasting, mortgage rates continued to climb, with the 30-year fixed rate rising for the sixth consecutive week to its highest level since March 2020.
The trade group estimates that the average contract 30-year fixed-rate mortgage for conforming loans ($647,200 or less) increased to 3.75% from 3.72% the week prior. For jumbo mortgage loans (greater than $647,200), rates climbed to 3.59% from 3.56% the week prior.
“Despite the increase in rates, refinance applications were up 18%, driven mainly by a 22% jump in conventional applications,” Kan said in a statement. “There has likely been some recent volatility in application counts due to holiday-impacted weeks, as well as from borrowers trying to secure a refinance before rates go even higher.”
How lenders can continue to serve borrowers despite housing affordability challenges
Potential borrowers who’ve been priced out of the housing market need to be able to compete with an increasingly growing share of cash buyers and investors who are beating them in bidding wars.
Presented by: Equifax
Regarding purchases applications, the average loan size hit a new record level at $441,100. “Stubbornly low inventory levels and swift home-price growth continue to push average loan sizes higher,” Kan said.
The survey showed that the refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 57.3% of total applications last week, from 55.8% the previous week. The VA apps dropped to 9.1% from 9.9% in the same period.
The FHA share of total applications decreased to 7.7% from 8.6% the prior week Meanwhile, the adjustable-rate mortgage share of activity increased from 4.4% of total applications to 4.5%. The USDA share of total applications went from 0.5% to 0.4%.
Prices across the US economy continue to rise, but the pace of growth has slowed significantly since summer 2022. The housing sector has become a major driver of inflation, even as the Federal Reserve has pushed up interest rates and made taking out a mortgage more expensive.
Mortgage rates begin ticking up once again
On 1 June, the Fed reported that the average rate applied to a 15-year-and-30-year mortgage rose to 6.18 and 6.79 percent, respectively, from 5.76 and 6.39 percent a month earlier. This rise is attributable to the Federal Reserve’s move to increase rates by twenty-five basis points in early May. As the Federal Funds rate increased, it brought with it higher mortgage rates. This trend will continue if the Fed plans to continue hiking rates. The momentary fall in mortgage rates looks to be a result of a slowdown in the pace of the Fed’s rate increases.
The Federal Reserve’s Beige Book compiles the economic outlook of the various ‘districts’ that make up the US central bank and points out the conflicts the bank is facing as housing prices remain high.
A look at what is happening in New England
The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston reported that while the number of houses sold in March and April increased, they are much lower than they were a year ago. For the Fed, fewer houses are being sold in the First District because of “low inventories,” not “weak demand,” stating that the fall in rates seen earlier this year “helped bring more buyers to the market” when the number of houses on the market was still very low.
In terms of how the issue of low inventory impacted the prices paid by homeowners, the Fed said that “house price appreciation [had] slowed on average but remained slightly positive, with the exception that home prices in Massachusetts (not including Boston) experienced modest declines from a year earlier.”
What is driving the low inventory?
Low inventory was also cited as a problem with the housing market by the Federal Reserve Banks of New York, Richmond, and San Fransisco.
There are a few factors that help to explain why housing inventory is so low in the US and how that is creating inflationary pressure in the economy. According to the United Way, sixteen million homes in the US are unoccupied, meaning that there are twenty-eight homes for each of the 538,000 people experiencing homelessness in the US. These unoccupied properties create an allusion of scarcity which drives up the price of homes that are on the market.
MetLife has reported that while until recently, institutional investors on Wall Street only owned around five percent of single-family homes, this number is projected to rise to thirty percent by 2030. Housing experts have expressed concern about the rising share of single-family homes being owned by investors in the US. These financial institutions may be motivated to keep the homes unoccupied to increase the collective value of their holdings.
[embedded content]
Additionally, once the property has been acquired, it may be left empty, a choice that is made when housing ceases to be right and, instead, is valued more as a financial asset. Eliminating the issue of homelessness may not be as profitable as forcing half a million people to live on the streets. That fact shouldn’t bother us so much. And, if the market is capable of setting prices that allow for a perfect or near-perfect distribution of resources, housing is a major prime example of the market mechanism failing in that goal.
A “For Sale” sign outside a house in Albany, California, US, on Tuesday, May 31, 2022. Homebuyers are facing a worsening affordability situation with mortgage rates hovering around the highest levels in more than a decade.
Joe Raedle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Mortgage rates pulled back for the second straight week last week, and it was enough to get both current and potential homeowners on the phone with their lenders.
Mortgage application volume rose 7.2% last week, compared with the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($726,200 or less) decreased to 6.77% from 6.81% in the prior week, with points falling to 0.65 from 0.66 (including the origination fee) for loans with a 20% down payment.
Applications to refinance a home loan rose 6% for the week but were 41% lower than the same week one year ago. While rates pulled back, they are still more than a full percentage point higher than they were a year ago and more than twice what they were in the first two years of the Covid pandemic, when there was a refinance boom. Most borrowers today have lower rates than what is currently available and therefore do not want to lose those rates even for a cash-out refinance.
Applications for a mortgage to purchase a home increased 8% for the week but were 27% lower than the same week one year ago.
“Rates that are still more than a percentage point higher than a year ago, and low for-sale inventory continue to constrain homebuying activity in many markets,” said Joel Kan, an MBA economist, in a press release. “The average loan size on a purchase loan decreased for the third straight week, as we continue to see more first-time homebuyer activity in the purchase market.”
Mortgage rates haven’t moved much this week, but that could change Wednesday afternoon when the Federal Reserve announces the results of its latest policy meeting and updated rate forecasts.
“Some say the Fed will use those forecasts to telegraph another rate hike or two in 2023. Although the Fed Funds Rate doesn’t directly dictate mortgage rates, such a move would still put quite a bit of upward pressure on interest rates of all shapes and sizes,” wrote Matthew Graham, COO of Mortgage News Daily.
The average rate on the most popular mortgage, the 30-year fixed, fell for the third straight week, but demand for mortgages didn’t move much.
Total mortgage application volume increased 0.5% last week, compared with the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index. This after demand surged the week before.
Last week, the average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($726,200 or less) decreased to 6.73% from 6.77%, with points falling to 0.64 from 0.65 (including the origination fee) for loans with a 20% down payment.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with jumbo loan balances (greater than $726,200) increased to 6.80% from 6.79% for loans with a 20% down payment. This marks the second straight week that jumbo loans have a higher rate than conforming loans.
“The last time jumbo rates were higher was in December 2021. Tighter liquidity conditions have prompted jumbo lenders to pull back, increasing rates in the process,” wrote Joel Kan, an MBA economist, in a release.
Applications to refinance a home loan decreased 2% for the week and were 40% lower than the same week one year ago.
Mortgage applications to purchase a home increased 2% for the week but were 32% lower than the same week a year ago. Homebuyers are starting to get used to higher interest rates, but the continued drop in new listings of homes for sale is keeping sales low. Federal Housing Administration demand rose more than conventional loan demand.
“First-time homebuyers account for a large share of FHA purchase loans, and this increase is a sign that while buyer interest is there, activity continues to be constrained by low levels of affordable inventory,” added Kan.
Homebuilders are benefiting from the dynamic. Mortgage applications to purchase a newly built home jumped 17% in May compared with May 2022, according to the MBA. In tandem with demand, single-family housing starts jumped 18.5% in May compared with April, according to the U.S. Census.
Mortgage rates began this week slightly lower, but that could change Wednesday as investors react to testimony from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell before the House Financial Services Committee.
Mortgage applications fell 7.1% from the previous week, following an increase in rates to the highest level since the pandemic onset, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) survey for the week ending Jan. 21.
The seasonally adjusted Refinance Index decreased 12.6% in the same period, with applications falling for the fourth straight week. Meanwhile, the Purchase Index declined 1.8%.
Compared to the same week one year ago, mortgage apps overall dropped 34.6%, with a sharp decline in refinance (-46.6%) compared to purchase (-8.5%).
According to Joel Kan, MBA’s associate vice president of economic and industry forecasting, all mortgage rates continue to climb, but the 30-year fixed rate rose for the fifth consecutive week to its highest level since March 2020.
The trade group estimates that the average contract 30-year fixed-rate mortgage for conforming loans ($647,200 or less) increased from 3.64% to 3.72%. For jumbo mortgage loans (greater than $647,200), rates went to 3.56% from 3.54% the week prior.
“After almost two years of lower rates, there are not many borrowers left who have an incentive to refinance. Of those who are still in the market for a refinance, these higher rates are proving much less attractive to them,” Kan said in a statement.
The keys to lending in a post-refi boom world
As record refinance volumes disappear, lenders need to get intimately familiar with their database of customers. Being a resource for all real estate financing needs for your customers will become more important in the next few years than ever before.
Presented by: CIVIC Financial
Regarding purchases, he said that the decline was led by a 5% drop in government applications, compared to less than 1% drop in conventional loans applications.
“The relative weakness in government purchase activity continues to contribute to higher loan sizes. The average purchase loan size was $433,500, eclipsing the previous record of $418,500 set two weeks ago.”
The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 55.5% of total applications last week, from 60.3% the previous week. The VA apps went from 10% to 9.9% in the same period.
The FHA share of total applications decreased from 9.3% to 8.6%. Meanwhile, the adjustable-rate mortgage share of activity increased from 3.8% of total applications to 4.4%. The USDA share of total applications went from 0.4% to 0.5%.