Mortgage Application Volume Down in Latest Survey

October 26, 2005

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending October 21. The Market Composite Index — a measure of mortgage loan application volume – was 679.1, a decrease of 7.9 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 737.5, one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 2.2 percent compared with the previous week but was down 3.7 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The seasonally-adjusted Purchase Index decreased by 7.4 percent to 466.4 from 503.9 the previous week whereas the Refinance Index decreased by 8.5 percent to 1916.8 from 2095.7 one week earlier. Other seasonally adjusted index activity includes the Conventional Index, which decreased 8.1 percent to 1014.3 from 1103.8 the previous week, and the Government Index, which decreased 4.9 percent to 120.1 from 126.3 the previous week.

The four week moving average for the seasonally-adjusted Market Index is down 1.5 percent to 706.2 from 716.8. The four week moving average is down 0.9 percent to 478.4 from 482.6 for the Purchase Index while this average is down 2.3 percent to 2031.2 from 2078.7 for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 42.5 percent of total applications from 42.8 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 29.5 percent of total applications from 29.3 percent the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 6.06 percent from 6.09 percent on week earlier, with points decreasing to 1.21 from 1.29 (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 5.57 percent from 5.62 percent, with points increasing to 1.30 from 1.29 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 5.37 percent from 5.34 percent one week earlier, with points remaining at 1.00 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

Source: MBA


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