Mortgage Applications Steady During Holiday Shortened Week

September 21, 2005

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending September 16. The Market Composite Index — a measure of mortgage loan application volume – was 772.2, an increase of 1.5 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 760.6 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 11.9 percent compared with the previous week and was up 12.0 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The seasonally-adjusted Purchase Index decreased by 2.6 percent to 500.3 from 513.4 the previous week whereas the Refinance Index increased by 7.0 percent to 2353.7 from 2198.7 one week earlier. Other seasonally adjusted index activity includes the Conventional Index, which increased 1.5 percent to 1160.5 from 1142.8 the previous week, and the Government Index, which increased 1.1 percent to 124.1 from 122.7 the previous week.

The four week moving average for the seasonally-adjusted Market Index is up 0.5 percent to 756.7 from 752.7. The four week moving average is up 0.6 percent to 495.9 from 492.9 for the Purchase Index while this average is up 0.4 percent to 2274.3 from 2264.4 for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 45.6 percent of total applications from 42.9 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 29.8 percent of total applications from 28.2 percent the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 5.81 percent from 5.72 percent on week earlier, with points increasing to 1.21 from 1.18 (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 5.38 percent from 5.29 percent one week earlier, with points decreasing to 1.25 from 1.31 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 4.94 percent from 4.82 percent one week earlier, with points decreasing to 1.00 from 1.04 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

Source: MBA


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