Mortgage Application Volume Holds Steady in Latest Survey

December 15, 2004

WASHINGTON, D.C. (December 15, 2004)— The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending December 10. The Market Composite Index - a measure of mortgage loan application volume - was 689.0, an decrease of 1.0 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 696.2 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 3.0 percent compared with last week but was up 0.6 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The MBA seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased by 0.4 percent to 488.9 from 490.9 the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Refinance Index decreased by 2.0 percent to 1852.4 from 1890.6 one week earlier.

"On an unadjusted basis, the Purchase Index is up 12.6 percent and the ARM Index is up 22.8 percent compared with the same week one year ago," said Michael Cevarr, MBA's Director of Member Surveys.

Other seasonally adjusted index activity included the Conventional Index, which decreased 1.0 percent to 1027.6 from 1037.7 the previous week. The Government Index decreased 2.1 percent to 123.9 from 126.5 the previous week.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 46.0 percent of total applications from 45.6 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 34.2 percent from 34.5 percent of total applications.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.65 percent from 5.68 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 1.28 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 decreased to 5.04 percent from 5.09 percent one week earlier, with points decreasing to 1.24 from 1.26 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 4.10 percent from 4.08 percent one week earlier, with points remaining at 0.99 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

Source: MBA


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