ARM Share of Mortgage Applications Reaches Record High

March 30, 2005

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending March 25. The Market Composite Index - a measure of mortgage loan application volume - was 674.3, an increase of 2.4 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 658.8 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 2.4 percent compared with last week but was down 36.5 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The MBA seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased by 5.5 percent to 470.9 from 446.4 the previous week whereas the seasonally adjusted Refinance Index decreased by 2.0 percent to 1857.2 from 1894.4 one week earlier.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 37.8 percent of total applications from 39.5 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 36.6 percent of total applications from 33.5 percent the previous week.

"Rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages have increased 34 basis points in the last month. Following this increase in rates, the market attained a record high ARM share this week, both in terms of number of loans and dollar volumes," said Mike Cevarr, MBA's director of industry surveys.

Other seasonally adjusted index activity included the Conventional Index, which increased 2.5 percent to 1006.1 from 981.5 the previous week. The Government Index remained unchanged from the previous week at 120.2.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased 6.08 percent from 5.95 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 1.34 from 1.22 (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 5.61 percent from 5.49 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 1.39 from 1.26 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 4.39 percent from 4.12 percent one week earlier, with points decreasing to 0.97 from 1.07 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

Source: MBA


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