Industry News

WASHINGTON, D.C. — This week’s results of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending January 5 (adjusted for the New Year’s Day holiday) found that the Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 671.1, an increase of 16.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 575.6 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 33.2 percent compared with the previous week and was up 12 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The Refinance Index increased by 17.3 percent to 1923.8 from 1640.4 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased by 16.2 percent to 472.8 from 406.9 one week earlier. The seasonally adjusted Conventional Index increased by 16.8 percent to 1001.5 from 857.3 the previous week, and the seasonally adjusted Government Index increased 13.5 percent to 120.4 from 106.1 the previous week. The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is down 2 percent to 612.5 from 625.1. The four week moving average is up 0.5 percent to 426.6 from 424.4 for the Purchase Index, while this average is down 5.1 percent to 1784.4 from 1879.6 for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 48.4 percent of total applications from 48.1 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 20.1 from 20.4 percent of total applications from the previous week. The ARM share is at its lowest level since July 2003.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 6.13 from 6.22 percent, with points increasing to 0.94 from 0.92 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans.

The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.85 percent from 5.93 percent, with points decreasing to 0.98 from 1 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 5.79 percent from 5.84, with points remaining unchanged at 0.83 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

Source: Mortgage Bankers Association