Mortgage Application Volume Up During Holiday Shortened Week

October 20, 2004

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending October 15. The Market Composite Index of mortgage loan applications - a measure of mortgage loan applications - was 709.9, an increase of 7.9 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 658.2 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 2.8 percent compared with last week but was up 8.4 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The MBA seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased by 5.8 percent to 461.4 from 436.3 the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Refinance Index increased by 10.6 percent to 2155.2 from 1949.2 one week earlier.

Other seasonally adjusted index activity included the Conventional Index, which increased 7.6 percent to 1049.7 from 975.5 the previous week. The Government Index increased 10.8 percent to 142.8 from 128.9 the previous week.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 45.6 percent of total applications from 44.5 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 34.8 percent of total applications from 34.9 percent the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.64 percent from 5.69 percent one week earlier, with points remaining at 1.30 (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 5.03 percent from 5.06 percent one week earlier, with points decreasing to 1.25 from 1.32 the previous week (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 3.81 percent from 3.87 percent one week earlier, with points decreasing to 1.12 from 1.18 from the previous week (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

Source: MBA


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