Mortgage loan application volumes to purchase a home in the U.S. ticked up 5 percent over the past week but were down 2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis and 11 percent lower than at the same time last year, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
And while the average loan size was a record $433,500, “the decline in purchase activity was led by a 5 percent drop in government applications, compared to a modest less than one percent decline in conventional applications” and “the relative weakness in government purchase activity continues to contribute to higher loan sizes” (i.e., mix), according to the MBA.