Mortgage Refinance Applications Continue To Decline

December 14, 2005

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA)Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending December 9 found that the Market Composite Index — a measure of mortgage loan application volume was 619.3 -- a decrease of 5.7 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 656.7, one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 8.1 percent compared with the previous week and was down 11.0 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The seasonally-adjusted Purchase Index decreased by 3.5 percent to 477.9 from 495.1 the previous week whereas the Refinance Index decreased by 9.7 percent to 1441.8 from 1596.4 one week earlier. Other seasonally adjusted index activity includes the Conventional Index, which decreased 5.5 percent to 927.5 from 981.8 the previous week, and the Government Index, which decreased 7.9 percent to 105.0 from 114.0 the previous week.

The four week moving average for the seasonally-adjusted Market Index is down 1.5 percent to 633.9 from 643.5. The four week moving average is unchanged at 480.4 for the Purchase Index while this average is down 4.1 percent to 1526.7 from 1591.8 for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 40.2 percent of total applications from 41.0 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 33.5 percent of total applications from 33.1 percent the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 6.28 percent from 6.32 percent on week earlier, with points decreasing to 1.24 from 1.30 (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 5.83 percent from 5.84 percent, with points decreasing to 1.28 from 1.37 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 5.50 percent from 5.49 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 0.94 from 0.91 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

Source: MBA


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