Home Purchase Application Volume Jumps in Latest Survey

November 3, 2004

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending October 29. The Market Composite Index of mortgage loan applications - a measure of mortgage loan applications - was 761.7, an increase of 8.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 703.9 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 7.5 percent compared with last week and was up 11.0 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The MBA seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased by 12.6 percent to 496.5 from 440.9 the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Refinance Index increased by 3.1 percent to 2303.9 from 2233.8 one week earlier.

Other seasonally adjusted index activity included the Conventional Index, which increased 8.1 percent to 1135.0 from 1050.4 the previous week. The Government Index increased 10.0 percent to 138.5 from 125.9 the previous week.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 45.7 percent of total applications from 47.7 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 34.4 percent of total applications from 34.9 percent the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 5.65 percent from 5.54 percent one week earlier, with points decreasing to 1.26 from 1.35 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 4.98 percent from 4.90 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 1.33 from 1.32 the previous week (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 3.96 percent from 3.93 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 1.18 from 1.15 from the previous week (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

Source: MBA


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