Mortgage Applications Down Slightly In Latest Survey

March 31, 2004

WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 31, 2004)—The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending March 26. The Market Composite Index of mortgage loan applications-a measure of mortgage loan applications for purchases and refinancings-decreased by 2.1 percent to 1091.3 on a seasonally adjusted basis from 1114.9 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased by 2.2 percent compared with last week and was down 12.6 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The MBA seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased by 1.1 percent to 443.8 from 448.9 the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Refinance Index decreased by 2.6 percent to 4857.6 from 4988.7 one week earlier. Other seasonally adjusted index activity included the Conventional Index, which decreased 1.2 percent to 1612.4 from 1631.6 the previous week. The Government Index decreased 12.2 percent to 221.8 from 252.5 the previous week.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 62.8 percent of total applications from 63.1 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 27.5 percent of total applications from 28.1 percent the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 5.49 percent from 5.38 percent from one week earlier, with points increasing to 1.29 from 1.24 the previous week (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 4.75 percent from 4.64 percent one week earlier, with points decreasing to 1.31 from 1.41 the previous week (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs remained at 3.30 percent, with points remaining at 0.98 from the previous week (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

Source:: Mortgage Bankers Association


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