Purchase Applications Up While Refinance Applications Drop In Latest Survey

June 2, 2004

WASHINGTON, D.C.The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released today its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending May 28. The Market Composite Index of mortgage loan applications-a measure of mortgage loan applications for purchases and refinancings -decreased by 1.2 percent to 624.6 on a seasonally adjusted basis from 632.4 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased by 1.5 percent compared with last week and was down 55.6 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The MBA seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased by 2.2 percent to 459.8 from 449.8 the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Refinance Index decreased by 6.6 percent to 1583.6 from 1694.9 one week earlier. Other seasonally adjusted index activity included the Conventional Index, which decreased 1.6 percent to 904.0 from 919.1 the previous week. The Government Index increased 2.9 percent to 158.5 from 154.0 the previous week.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 34.3 percent of total applications from 36.2 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 33.9 percent of total applications from 34.6 percent the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 6.24 percent from 6.26 percent from one week earlier, with points remaining at 1.35 (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 5.59 percent from 5.63 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 1.38 from 1.36 the previous week (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 3.85 percent from 3.86 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 1.03 from 0.99 from the previous week (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

Source: MBA


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