Mortgage Refinance Activity Up 9.8 Percent In Latest Weekly Survey

April 27, 2005

WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 27, 2005)—The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending April 22. The Market Composite Index - a measure of mortgage loan application volume - was 712.4, an increase of 5.9 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 672.6 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 6.3 percent compared with last week but was down 4.2 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The MBA seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased by 3.3 percent to 482.0 from 466.7 the previous week whereas the seasonally adjusted Refinance Index increased by 9.8 percent to 2052.5 from 1870.0 one week earlier. On a year-over-year basis the Purchase Index is up 3.9 percent overall while the Conventional Purchase Index is up 7.3 percent.

"With a 9.8 percent increase in applications, refinance activity is at its highest level since March 11," said Michael Cevarr, director of member surveys at MBA. "However, refinance applications volume is down 14.6 percent from one year ago."

Other seasonally adjusted index activity included the Conventional Index, which increased 6.3 percent to 1066.6 from 1003.1 the previous week. The Government Index increased 0.4 percent to 121.3 from 120.8 the previous week.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 39.3 percent of total applications from 38.0 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 34.7 percent of total applications from 35.4 percent the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.75 percent from 5.83 percent one week earlier, with points remaining at 1.28 (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 5.33 percent from 5.40 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 1.26 from 1.20 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 4.15 percent from 4.22 percent one week earlier, with points decreasing to 0.97 from 1.01 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

Source: MBA


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