Mortgage Refinance Application Volume Up In Latest Survey

February 2, 2005

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending January 28. The Market Composite Index - a measure of mortgage loan application volume - was 706.4, an increase of 7.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 658.1 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 23.7 percent compared with last week but was down 18.8 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The MBA seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased by 0.3 percent to 440.3 from 439.0 the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Refinance Index increased by 16.6 percent to 2253.9 from 1932.8 one week earlier.

Other seasonally adjusted index activity included the Conventional Index, which increased 7.6 percent to 1051.5 from 977.4 the previous week. The Government Index increased 4.1 percent to 130.3 from 125.2 the previous week.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 48.7 percent of total applications from 46.5 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 32.5 percent from 31.7 percent of total applications.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 5.61 percent from 5.58 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 1.27 from 1.22 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 5.10 percent from 5.03 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 1.27 from 1.22 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 4.08 percent from 4.21 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 1.10 from 1.07 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

Source: MBA


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