Mortgage Application Volume Down Slightly Last Week

January 26, 2005

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending January 21. The Market Composite Index - a measure of mortgage loan application volume - was 658.1, a decrease of 3.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 682.9 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 10.7 percent compared with last week and was down 26.2 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The MBA seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased by 2.0 percent to 439.0 from 448.1 the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Refinance Index decreased by 5.7 percent to 1932.8 from 2048.6 one week earlier.

Other seasonally adjusted index activity included the Conventional Index, which decreased 3.7 percent to 977.4 from 1014.9 the previous week. The Government Index decreased 2.9 percent to 125.2 from 128.9 the previous week.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 46.5 percent of total applications from 48.9 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 31.7 percent from 32.8 percent of total applications.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.58 percent from 5.64 percent one week earlier, with points decreasing to 1.22 from 1.23 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 5.03 percent from 5.14 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 1.22 from 1.20 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 4.21 percent from 4.13 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 1.07 from 1.00 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

Source: MBA


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