Refi and purchase applications are rising once again

Kan added that purchase applications have picked up an upward momentum over the past few weeks. 

“Activity was slightly higher for the third straight week but remained lower than the same week a year ago,” he said. “Government purchase applications drove most of last week’s increase, which also contributed to a slightly lower overall average purchase loan size.”

Of total applications, the share of refinance activity increased from 61.7% to 62.5% week over week, and the adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 3.9%.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($548,250 or less) climbed from 3.11% to 3.18%, with points increasing from 0.36 to 0.48 (including the origination fee) for 80% loan-to-value ratio (LTV) loans.