Mortgage Application Volume Up 6.1 Percent

April 13, 2005

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending April 8. The Market Composite Index - a measure of mortgage loan application volume - was 683.6, an increase of 6.1 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 644.5 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 6.2 percent compared with last week but was down 12.1 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The MBA seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased by 6.4 percent to 474.5 from 446.0 the previous week whereas the seasonally adjusted Refinance Index increased by 5.6 percent to 1899.6 from 1798.8 one week earlier. On a year-over-year basis the Purchase Index is up 9.7 percent overall while the Conventional Purchase Index is up 14.5 percent.

Other seasonally adjusted index activity included the Conventional Index, which increased 6.3 percent to 1020.9 from 960.5 the previous week. The Government Index increased 2.9 percent to 120.5 from 117.1 the previous week.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 38.1 percent of total applications from 38.3 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 35.8 percent of total applications from 35.2 percent the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 5.95 percent from 5.91 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 1.36 from 1.26 (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 5.51 percent from 5.48 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 1.34 from 1.32 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 4.28 percent from 4.29 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 0.97 from 0.90 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

Source: MBA


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