Mortgage Application Volume Steady in Latest MBA Survey

July 12, 2006

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The latest Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending July 7 found that Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 566.8, an increase of 1.0 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 561.0 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 29.1 percent compared with the previous week and was down 36.3 percent compared with the same week one year earlier. 

The seasonally-adjusted Purchase Index increased by 2.6 percent to 425.0 from 414.2 the previous week and the Refinance Index decreased by 1.6 percent to 1400.5 from 1423.9 one week earlier. Other seasonally adjusted index activity includes the Conventional Index, which increased 1.2 percent to 837.3 from 827.2 the previous week, and the Government Index, which decreased 1.3 percent to 115.8 from 117.3 the previous week.

The four week moving average for the seasonally-adjusted Market Index is down 0.2 percent to 556.3 from 557.5. The four week moving average is up 0.6 percent to 410.8 from 408.2 for the Purchase Index, while this average is down 1.7 percent to 1411.6 from 1436.4 for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 34.0 percent of total applications from 35.0 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 28.7 percent of total applications from 29.5 percent the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 6.81 percent from 6.80 percent, with points decreasing to 1.06 from 1.13 (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 6.40 percent from 6.41 percent, with points increasing to 1.17 from 1.12 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. 

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 6.41 percent from 6.39 percent, with points increasing to 0.79 from 0.78 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. This is the highest that the one year rate has been since February 2001.

Source: MBA


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