Refinance Application Volume Continues Steady Decline

May 26, 2004

WASHINGTON, D.C. —The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released today its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending May 21. The Market Composite Index of mortgage loan applications-a measure of mortgage loan applications for purchases and refinancings-decreased by 3.3 percent to 632.4 on a seasonally adjusted basis from 654.1 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased by 3.4 percent compared with last week and was down 59.1 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The MBA seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased by 1.0 percent to 449.8 from 454.2 the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Refinance Index decreased by 6.7 percent to 1694.9 from 1816.9 one week earlier. Other seasonally adjusted index activity included the Conventional Index, which decreased 3.2 percent to 919.1 from 949.8 the previous week. The Government Index decreased 4.0 percent to 154.0 from 160.5 the previous week.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 36.2 percent of total applications from 37.4 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 34.6 percent of total applications from 35.2 percent the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 6.26 percent from 6.21 percent from one week earlier, with points decreasing to 1.35 from 1.39 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 5.63 percent from 5.58 percent one week earlier, with points decreasing to 1.36 from 1.40 the previous week (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 3.86 percent from 3.75 percent one week earlier, with points decreasing to 0.99 from 1.02 from the previous week (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

Source: MBA


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