Mortgage Application Volume Down Slightly During Holiday Shortened Week

September 15, 2004

WASHINGTON, D.C. (September 15, 2004)—The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending September 10. The Market Composite Index of mortgage loan applications - a measure of mortgage loan applications - was 678.2, a decrease of 2.0 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 692.0 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased by 22.5 percent compared with last week and was down 25.4 percent compared with the same week one year earlier, which was not a week that included Labor Day.

The MBA seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased by 4.3 percent to 455.7 from 476.0 the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Refinance Index increased by 1.2 percent to 1972.5 from 1948.9 one week earlier. Other seasonally adjusted index activity included the Conventional Index, which decreased 1.5 percent to 1007.2 from 1022.3 the previous week. The Government Index decreased 8.4 percent to 129.0 from 140.8 the previous week.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 43.2 percent of total applications from 41.4 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 33.0 percent of total applications from 32.9 percent the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.68 percent from 5.79 percent one week earlier, with points decreasing to 1.36 from 1.37 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 5.03 percent from 5.16 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 1.38 from 1.34 the previous week (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 3.86 percent from 3.93 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 1.20 from 1.15 from the previous week (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

Source: MBA


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