Mortgage Application Volume Falls in Latest MBA Survey

May 19, 2004

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending May 14. The Market Composite Index of mortgage loan applications-a measure of mortgage loan applications for purchases and refinancings-decreased by 11.9 percent to 654.1 on a seasonally adjusted basis from 742.2 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased by 11.6 percent compared with last week and was down 55.8 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The MBA seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased by 8.1 percent to 454.2 from 494.3 the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Refinance Index decreased by 16.8 percent to 1816.9 from 2184.6 one week earlier. Other seasonally adjusted index activity included the Conventional Index, which decreased 12.7 percent to 949.8 from 1088.2 the previous week. The Government Index decreased 2.6 percent to 160.5 from 164.8 the previous week.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 37.4 percent of total applications from 39.8 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 35.2 percent of total applications from 34.8 percent the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 6.21 percent from 6.32 percent from one week earlier, with points decreasing to 1.39 from 1.44 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 decreased to 5.58 percent from 5.72 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 1.40 from 1.27 the previous week (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 3.75 percent from 3.74 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 1.02 from 0.97 from the previous week (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

Source: MBA


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