Mortgage Application Volume Down In Latest Survey

November 24, 2004

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending November 19. The Market Composite Index - a measure of mortgage loan application volume - was 715.0, a decrease of 5.7 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 758.3 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 2.5 percent compared with last week but was down 8.0 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The MBA seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased by 3.5 percent to 463.3 from 480.3 the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Refinance Index decreased by 8.3 percent to 2179.3 from 2375.4 one week earlier.

Other seasonally adjusted index activity included the Conventional Index, which decreased 5.3 percent to 1066.1 from 1125.2 the previous week. The Government Index decreased 11.5 percent to 129.2 from 146.0 the previous week.

While the unadjusted Market Composite Purchase Index is up 1.8 percent compared with last year, the Conventional Purchase Index is up 11.2 percent and the Government Purchase Index is down 47.7 percent on a year-over-year basis.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 48.4 percent of total applications from 48.6 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity remained 34.0 percent of total applications.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.64 percent from 5.70 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 1.36 from 1.27 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 remained at 5.08 percent, with points decreasing to 1.23 from 1.27 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 4.13 percent from 3.89 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 0.99 from 0.97 from the previous week (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

Source: MBA


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