ARM Application Volume Declines During Holiday-Shortened Week
July 13, 2005
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released the Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending July 8 which found that The Market Composite Index - a measure of mortgage loan application volume - was 791.9, a decrease of 7.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 853.4 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 25.7 percent compared with the previous week but was up 22.0 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.
"Mortgage application volume is down 7.2 percent from the previous week, with applications for adjustable rate products experiencing an even steeper decline of 15.8 percent," said Michael Cevarr, MBA's director of member surveys. "As a result, the ARM share of applications, at 27.9 percent, is at its lowest level since March of 2004."
The seasonally-adjusted Purchase Index decreased by 6.1 percent to 489.0 from 520.8 the previous week whereas the Refinance Index decreased by 8.4 percent to 2554.3 from 2788.2 one week earlier. Other seasonally adjusted index activity includes the Conventional Index, which decreased 6.4 percent to 1196.9 from 1278.7 the previous week, and the Government Index, which decreased 19.2 percent to 116.2 from 143.9 the previous week.
In an effort to better represent short term trends in the major indexes, four-week moving averages for seasonally-adjusted indexes will be included on a weekly basis. The four week moving average for the seasonally-adjusted Market Index is down 2.9 percent from 826.4 to 802.6. The four week moving average is down 2.0 percent for the Purchase Index from 501.7 to 491.7 while this average is down 3.8 percent from 2715.0 to 2611.7 for the Refinance Index.
The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 45.1 percent of total applications from 45.7 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 27.9 percent of total applications from 30.7 percent the previous week.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 5.62 percent from 5.58 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 1.26 from 1.14 (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 5.21 percent from 5.18 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 1.28 from 1.13 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.
The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 4.56 percent from 4.60 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 1.01 from 0.97 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.
Source: MBA
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