Florida Mortgage Applications Up 5.3 Percent

The number of applications for mortgages filed with major U.S. banks rose a seasonally adjusted 3.2 percent last week, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Thursday.

Application volumes are down 22.8 percent compared with a year ago, in line with other data showing the nation’s housing market cooling significantly. However, applications have been rebounding in recent weeks since their lowest point in years.

Florida home loan applications rose 5.3 percent from last week, calculated on a week-to-week, seasonally adjusted basis. Applications for mortgage refinancing, meanwhile, increased 0.1 percent.

As we discussed earlier this week, refinancing is accounting for more and more of the total Florida home loan applications recorded, coming in at 40.3 percent of total activity this week. That’s down from 41 percent the previous week.

With spreads tightening nowadays between adjustable-rate and fixed-rate loans, adjustable options accounted for just 25.5 percent of loans, the lowest ARM share in nearly three years.

The average interest rate for a 30-year Florida home mortgage rose to 6.32 percent in the latest week from 6.31 percent a week earlier. The average rate for a 15-year fixed loan, a popular refinancing option, nudged up to 5.98 percent from 5.97 percent.

The average rate for a one-year ARM rose to 5.96 percent from 5.91 percent.

The 0.36 percentage point spread between the 30-year and the one-year ARM represents the slimmest seen since January 2001. The spread widened to as much as 2.97 percentage points in August 2003, a key factor in propelling the popularity of ARMs and helping sustain growth in the Florida housing market.