Mortgage Loan Applications Up In Latest MBA Survey
January 9, 2002
Refinance and Purchase Index Increase
WASHINGTON, D.C. (January 9) The market composite index of mortgage loan applications?a measure of loan purchases and refinances?for the week ending January 4 increased 29.9 percent to 570.7 on a seasonally adjusted basis from a revised 439.2 the previous week, according to the Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey of the Mortgage Bankers Association of America (MBA), which was released today. On an unadjusted basis, the application index increased 32.2 percent and was down 11.9 percent compared to the same week a year earlier.
The MBA seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased to 375.9 from a revised 293.8 the previous week. The seasonally adjusted refinance Index increased to 1703.7 from a revised 1284.8 the previous week. Other seasonally adjusted index activity included the Conventional Index, which increased to 744.1 from a revised 571.0 the previous week, and the Government Index, which increased to 281.0 from a revised 219.2 the previous week.
The report for the week ended December 28, 2001 used a one-day holiday factor for the seasonal adjustment. After reviewing the holiday factors applied to the seasonal adjustment in previous years when Christmas and New Years happened mid-week, and reviewing survey respondent policies, the decision was made to revise the seasonally-adjusted indexes in the report for the week ended December 28, 2001 to reflect a two-day holiday effect. The press release for that report has been revised to reflect these. The same two-day holiday effect was applied to the current report for the week ended January 4, 2002. (In addition, a data-reporting error contained in the data for the week ended December 21, 2001 was corrected.)
Refinancing activity represented 50.3 percent of total applications, increasing slightly from 50.2 percent the previous week. The share of ARM activity increased to 14.9 percent from 13.5 percent the previous week.
The average contract interest rate for30-year fixed rate mortgages was 7.04 percent, decreasing from 7.12 the previous week, with points decreasing to 1.34 from 1.37 the previous week (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans.
The average contract interest rate for15-year fixed rate mortgages was 6.49 percent, decreasing from 6.52 the previous week, with points decreasing to 1.34 from 1.43 the previous week (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans.
The average contract interest rate for1-year ARMs was 5.22 percent, decreasing from a revised 5.27 percent the previous week, with points decreasing to 1.10 from from a revised 1.32 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The 1-year ARM rate for the week ended December 28, 2001 was revised from 4.95 to 5.27. Points were revised from 1.41 to 1.32. These revisions are reflected in the revised press release for the report for the week ended December 28, 2001.
Source: Mortgage Bankers Association
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