Industry News

Mortgage Application Volume Down Slightly In Latest Survey

August 24, 2005

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending August 19. The Market Composite Index - a measure of mortgage loan application volume - was 756.2, a decrease of 0.7 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 761.3 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 1.8 percent compared with the previous week but was up 17.2 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The seasonally-adjusted Purchase Index decreased by 2.2 percent to 488.4 from 499.3 the previous week whereas the Refinance Index increased by 1.2 percent to 2313.9 from 2285.5 one week earlier. Other seasonally adjusted index activity includes the Conventional Index, which decreased 0.6 percent to 1139.7 from 1146.9 the previous week, and the Government Index, which decreased 1.5 percent to 116.1 from 117.9 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 up 0.1 percent to 753.7 from 753.2. The four week moving average is up 0.2 percent to 495.3 from 494.4 for the Purchase Index while this average is down 0.1 percent to 2256.6 from 2258.2 for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 43.7 percent of total applications from 42.4 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 28.1 percent of total applications from 28.9 percent the previous week. The ARM share is down from a 2005 high of 36.6 percent seen during the week of March 25, 2005.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.78 percent from 5.79 percent, with points decreasing to 1.20 from 1.22 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans.