Mortgage Application Volume Declines In Latest Morgage Bankers Survey

February 1, 2006

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending January 27. The Market Composite Index — a measure of mortgage loan application volume was 626.8 – a decrease of 5.1 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 660.5 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 9.1 percent compared with the previous week but was down 12.1 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The seasonally-adjusted Purchase Index decreased by 8.0 percent to 435.7 from 473.7 the previous week whereas the Refinance Index decreased by 1.5 percent to 1747.2 from 1773.9 one week earlier. Other seasonally adjusted index activity includes the Conventional Index, which decreased 5.9 percent to 924.7 from 982.6 the previous week, and the Government Index, which increased 5.3 percent to 129.9 from 123.4 the previous week.

The four week moving average for the seasonally-adjusted Market Index is up 3.3 percent to 625.2 from 605.0. The four week moving average is up 1.0 percent to 452.7 from 448.3 for the Purchase Index while this average is up 6.1 percent to 1666.0 from 1570.0 for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 43.0 percent of total applications from 42.8 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 30.5 percent of total applications from 29.5 percent the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 6.20 percent from 6.04 percent on week earlier, with points decreasing to 1.17 from 1.24 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans.

The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 5.79 percent from 5.66 percent, with points increasing to 1.22 from 1.14 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 5.48 percent from 5.44 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 0.96 from 0.95 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

Source: MBA


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