Mortgage Refinance Index Reaches 7 Month High In Latest MBA Survey

March 3, 2004

WASHINGTON, D.C. ? The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending February 27. The Market Composite Index of mortgage loan applications-a measure of mortgage loan applications for purchases and refinancings-increased by 2.8 percent to 878.7 on a seasonally adjusted basis from 854.5 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased by 15.2 percent compared with last week and was down 29.3 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The MBA seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased by 0.2 percent to 422.6 from 423.5 the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Refinance Index increased by 5.1 percent to 3532.2 from 3361.9 one week earlier. Other seasonally adjusted index activity included the Conventional Index, which increased 2.8 percent to 1260.8 from 1226.9 the previous week. The Government Index increased 3.5 percent to 241.2 from 233.0 the previous week.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 56.4 percent of total applications from 55.7 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 28.8 percent of total applications from 27.1 percent the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages remained at 5.49 percent , with points decreasing to 1.32 from 1.39 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 4.78 percent from 4.79 percent one week earlier , with points decreasing to 1.28 from 1.35 the previous week (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 3.34 percent from 3.36 percent one week earlier , with points increasing to 0.99 from 0.97 the previous week (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

Source: MBA


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