Rise in Purchase Application Volume Offsets Decline in Refinance Application Volume

March 9, 2005

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending March 04. The Market Composite Index - a measure of mortgage loan application volume - was 704.8, a decrease of 0.7 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 710.1 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 11.3 percent compared with last week but was down 19.7 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The MBA seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased by 2.7 percent to 451.7 from 440.0 the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Refinance Index decreased by 4.6 percent to 2176.8 from 2281.1 one week earlier.

"The purchase index has increased for the second consecutive week," said Michael Cevarr, MBA's director of member surveys, "at 451.7, the purchase index it at its highest point this year."

Other seasonally adjusted index activity included the Conventional Index, which decreased 0.7 percent to 1050.9 from 1058.2 the previous week. The Government Index decreased 1.4 percent to 127.3 from 129.1 the previous week.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 42.6 percent of total applications from 44.8 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 30.5 percent of total applications from 30.7 percent the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.69 percent from 5.74 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 1.23 from 1.19 the previous week (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 5.25 percent from 5.27 percent one week earlier, with points decreasing to 1.22 from 1.27 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 4.43 percent from 4.27 percent one week earlier, with points decreasing to 0.95 from 1.02 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

Source:MBA


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