Refinance Application Volume Up Second Week in a Row

February 9, 2005

WASHINGTON, D.C. (February 9, 2005)— The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending February 4. The Market Composite Index - a measure of mortgage loan application volume - was 735.9, an increase of 4.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 706.4 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 7.5 percent compared with last week but was down 8.7 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The MBA seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased by 1.0 percent to 444.6 from 440.3 the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Refinance Index increased by 7.8 percent to 2430.7 from 2253.9 one week earlier.

Other seasonally adjusted index activity included the Conventional Index, which increased 4.5 percent to 1098.6 from 1051.5 the previous week. The Government Index increased 0.5 percent to 130.9 from 130.3 the previous week.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 48.9 percent of total applications from 48.7 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 31.9 percent from 32.5 percent of total applications.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.48 percent from 5.61 percent one week earlier, with points decreasing to 1.25 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 5.06 percent from 5.10 percent one week earlier, with points decreasing to 1.17 from 1.27 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 4.24 percent from 4.08 percent one week earlier, with points decreasing to 0.99 from 1.10 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

Source: MBA


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