Mortgage Rates Fall, Application Volume Down Slightly In Latest Survey

August 11, 2004

WASHINGTON, D.C. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending August 6. The Market Composite Index of mortgage loan applications - a measure of mortgage loan applications - was 616.1, a decrease of 0.7 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 620.4 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased by 1.4 percent compared with last week and was down 24.2 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The MBA seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased by 2.7 percent to 440.0 from 452.0 the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Refinance Index increased by 2.5 percent to 1640.5 from 1600.3 one week earlier. Other seasonally adjusted index activity included the Conventional Index, which decreased 0.2 percent to 905.7 from 907.8 the previous week. The Government Index decreased 5.5 percent to 132.8 from 140.6 the previous week.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 37.2 percent of total applications from 35.8 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 34.2 percent of total applications from 33.5 percent the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.80 percent from 5.97 percent one week earlier, with points decreasing to 1.24 from 1.48 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 decreased to 5.16 percent from 5.33 percent one week earlier, with points decreasing to 1.39 from 1.51 the previous week (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 3.85 percent from 3.90 percent one week earlier, with points decreasing to 1.02 from 1.17 from the previous week (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

Source: MBA


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