Mortgage Application Volume Down Last Week

September 28, 2005

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending September 23. The Market Composite Index — a measure of mortgage loan application volume – was 721.2, a decrease of 6.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 772.2 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 7.1 percent compared with the previous week and was down 0.5 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The seasonally-adjusted Purchase Index decreased by 3.4 percent to 483.1 from 500.3 the previous week whereas the Refinance Index decreased by 10.5 percent to 2106.6 from 2353.7 one week earlier. Other seasonally adjusted index activity includes the Conventional Index, which decreased 6.2 percent to 1088.8 from 1160.5 the previous week, and the Government Index, which decreased 13.0 percent to 108.0 from 124.1 the previous week.

The four week moving average for the seasonally-adjusted Market Index is down 0.1 percent to 756.4 from 756.7. The four week moving average is up 0.6 percent to 499.0 from 495.9 for the Purchase Index while this average is down 0.9 percent to 2254.0 from 2274.3 for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 43.9 percent of total applications from 45.6 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 28.8 percent of total applications from 29.8 percent the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 5.85 percent from 5.81 percent on week earlier, with points decreasing to 1.19 from 1.21 (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 5.44 percent from 5.38 percent one week earlier, with points decreasing to 1.23 from 1.25 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 5.02 percent from 4.94 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 1.01 from 1.00 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

Source: MBA


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