ARM Share of Applications Reaches Highest Level in Nearly 10 years

May 12, 2004

Refinance Application Volume Down More Than 13 Percent

WASHINGTON, D.C—The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending May 7. The Market Composite Index of mortgage loan applications-a measure of mortgage loan applications for purchases and refinancings-decreased by 5.0 percent to 742.2 on a seasonally adjusted basis from 780.9 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased by 4.1 percent compared with last week and was down 45.2 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The MBA seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased by 2.4 percent to 494.3 from 482.5 the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Refinance Index decreased by 13.2 percent to 2184.6 from 2516.0 one week earlier. Other seasonally adjusted index activity included the Conventional Index, which decreased 4.1 percent to 1088.2 from 1134.2 the previous week. The Government Index decreased 13.9 percent to 164.8 from 191.4 the previous week.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 39.8 percent of total applications from 44.0 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 34.8 percent of total applications from 32.1 percent the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 6.32 percent from 6.10 percent from one week earlier, with points increasing to 1.44 from 1.38 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 increased to 5.72 percent from 5.44 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 1.27 from 1.24 the previous week (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 3.74 percent from 3.69 percent one week earlier, with points decreasing to 0.97 from 0.98 from the previous week (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

Source: MBA


Contact ALTA at 202-296-3671 or [email protected].