Mortgage Application Volume Down In Latest Survey

August 31, 2005

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending August 26. The Market Composite Index - a measure of mortgage loan application volume - was 722.5, a decrease of 4.5 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 756.2 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 5.7 percent compared with the previous week but was up 12.7 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The seasonally-adjusted Purchase Index decreased by 3.6 percent to 470.6 from 488.4 the previous week whereas the Refinance Index decreased by 5.4 percent to 2187.8 from 2313.9 one week earlier. Other seasonally adjusted index activity includes the Conventional Index, which decreased 4.5 percent to 1088.6 from 1139.7 the previous week, and the Government Index, which decreased 3.9 percent to 111.6 from 116.1 the previous week.

In an effort to better represent short term trends in the major indexes, four-week moving averages for seasonally-adjusted indexes will be included on a weekly basis. The four week moving average for the seasonally-adjusted Market Index is down 1.0 percent to 746.3 from 753.7. The four week moving average is down 1.2 percent to 489.3 from 495.3 for the Purchase Index while this average is down 0.7 percent to 2240.9 from 2256.6 for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 43.8 percent of total applications from 43.7 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 27.8 percent of total applications from 28.1 percent the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.73 percent from 5.78 percent, with points increasing to 1.21 from 1.20 (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 5.36 percent from 5.41 percent one week earlier, with points remaining at 1.19 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 4.88 percent from 4.84 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 1.06 from 1.05 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

Source: MBA


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