Mortgage Applications Decrease In Latest MBA Survey
December 4, 2002
Fixed Mortgage Rates Increase
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Market Composite Index of mortgage loan applications -- a measure of mortgage loan applications for purchases and refinancings -- for the week ending November 29 decreased 17.0 percent to 939.0 on a seasonally-adjusted basis from 1131.0 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 Index decreased 43.5 percent and was down 10.8 percent compared to the same week a year earlier.
The unadjusted indexes were down sharply mostly because of the Thanksgiving holiday. To account for the holiday, the seasonally-adjusted indexes were multiplied by 1.429 after their initial adjustment to allow for a 1.5-day holiday adjustment. This has been done for the Thanksgiving holiday week every year since 1995.
The MBA seasonally-adjusted Purchase Index increased to 386.6 from 350.2 the previous week. The seasonally-adjusted Refinance Index decreased to 4151.9 from 5672.3 the previous week. Last week marked the nineteenth consecutive week that the Refinance Index has been above 4000, and the Refinance Index was above 5000 for thirteen of those nineteen weeks. Other seasonally-adjusted index activity included the Conventional Index, which decreased to 1318.8 from 1639.4 the previous week. The Government Index increased to 305.1 from 282.5 the previous week.
Refinancing activity represented 69.5 percent of total applications, decreasing from 76.6 percent the previous week. The share of ARM activity increased to 14.0 percent from 13.4 percent the previous week.
The average contract interest rate for30-year fixed rate mortgages increased to 6.09 percent from 6.00 percent the previous week, with points decreasing to 1.51 from 1.54 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 increased to 5.49 percent from 5.41 percent the previous week, with points decreasing to 1.40 from 1.53 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 3.94 percent, increasing slightly from 3.93 percent the previous week, with points decreasing to 1.10 from 1.11 the previous week (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.
Source: Mortgage Bankers Association
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