Mortgage Application Volume Flat As Increase in Refinance Applications Offset by Slight Decrease in Purchase Applications

December 22, 2004

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending December 17. The Market Composite Index - a measure of mortgage loan application volume - was 689.3, a increase of 0.1 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 689.0 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 0.5 percent compared with last week but was up 8.5 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The MBA seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased by 3.6 percent to 471.1 from 488.9 the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Refinance Index increased by 5.7 percent to 1958.2 from 1852.4 one week earlier.

On an unadjusted basis, the Purchase Index is up 14.8 percent and the ARM Index is up 34.0 percent compared with the same week one year ago.

Other seasonally adjusted index activity included the Conventional Index, which increased 0.3 percent to 1031.1 from 1027.6 the previous week. The Government Index decreased 4.2 percent to 118.7 from 123.9 the previous week.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 48.9 percent of total applications from 46.0 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 34.4 percent from 34.2 percent of total applications.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 5.69 percent from 5.65 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 1.39 from 1.28 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 5.11 percent from 5.04 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 1.28 from 1.24 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 4.15 percent from 4.10 percent one week earlier, with points decreasing to 0.98 from 0.99 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

Source: MBA


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