Another early sign of a housing comeback: California mortgage applications in late May rebounded, topping year-ago levels for the first time since March.

The Mortgage Bankers Association has released the California slice of its widely watched national loan-application data. The association has been monitoring this data closely since early March when coronavirus-related “stay at home” orders began throttling the economy and initially slowed house hunting.

Since mid-April, as business limitations were eased, homebuying has perked up. Here’s what the latest report — for the week ended May 29 — tells us about statewide mortgage applications. This week was short a business day because of Memorial Day … Applications ran 5.5% above the year-ago level. It’s the first time above 2019’s pace since March. And it’s a stark change from the week ending April 10, when applications were 49% below a year ago.

• The holiday was a key reason why 5.9% fewer Californians applied for a purchase mortgage vs. the previous week.
• Since the recent bottom for mortgage-making, my trusty spreadsheet shows applications in California are running at a 67% faster pace than the cycle’s bottom nine weeks ago.
• Homebuyers in the past week sought mortgages at a pace that’s 93% of the first week of March, before the state limitations on most businesses.