Mortgage Purchase Volume Steady While Refinance Activity Decreases In Latest Survey

August 17, 2005

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending August 5. The Market Composite Index - a measure of mortgage loan application volume - was 745.0, a decrease of 0.9 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 752.1 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 1.3 percent compared with the previous week but was up 20.8 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The seasonally-adjusted Purchase Index increased by 0.9 percent to 498.8 from 494.5 the previous week whereas the Refinance Index decreased by 3.3 percent to 2176.5 from 2250.3 one week earlier. Other seasonally adjusted index activity includes the Conventional Index, which decreased 0.7 percent to 1122.2 from 1130.1 the previous week, and the Government Index, which decreased 4.9 percent to 115.3 from 121.3 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 1.5 percent to 763.1 from 774.9. The four week moving average is up 0.5 percent to 491.8 from 489.3 for the Purchase Index while this average is down 3.9 percent to 2341.3 from 2435.8 for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 40.9 percent of total applications from 41.7 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 29.7 percent of total applications from 28.5 percent the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 5.91 percent from 5.83 percent, with points increasing to 1.24 from 1.16 (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 5.49 percent from 5.41 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 1.29 from 1.13 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 4.88 percent from 4.78 percent one week earlier, with points decreasing to 0.99 from 1.00 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

Source: MBA


Contact ALTA at 202-296-3671 or [email protected].