Mortgage Applications Up Slightly in Latest MBA Survey

February 25, 2004

WASHINGTON, D.C. ? The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending February 20. The Market Composite Index of mortgage loan applications-a measure of mortgage loan applications for purchases and refinancings-increased by 2.1 percent to 854.5 on a seasonally adjusted basis from 837.1 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased by 6.7 percent compared with last week and was down 24.1 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The MBA seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased by 2.3 percent to 423.5 from 413.9 the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Refinance Index increased by 1.9 percent to 3361.9 from 3298.3 one week earlier. Other seasonally adjusted index activity included the Conventional Index, which increased 2.0 percent to 1226.9 from 1203.4 the previous week. The Government Index increased 3.2 percent to 233.0 from 225.7 the previous week.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 55.7 percent of total applications from 56.6 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity remained at 27.1 percent.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 5.49 percent from 5.46 percent one week earlier , with points decreasing to 1.39 from 1.40 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 increased to 4.79 percent from 4.78 percent one week earlier , with points increasing to 1.35 from 1.32 the previous week (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 3.36 percent from 3.27 percent one week earlier , with points decreasing to 0.97 from 1.00 the previous week (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

Source: MBA


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