Mortgage Refinance Applications Down; Purchase Applications Remain Steady
July 27, 2005
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending July 22. The Market Composite Index - a measure of mortgage loan application volume - was 754.3, a decrease of 5.8 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 801.1 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 5.6 percent compared with the previous week but was up 20.7 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.
The seasonally-adjusted Purchase Index decreased by 0.7 percent to 485.1 from 488.7 the previous week whereas the Refinance Index decreased by 11.4 percent to 2320.3 from 2618.2 one week earlier. Other seasonally adjusted index activity includes the Conventional Index, which decreased 6.0 percent to 1134.9 from 1206.8 the previous week, and the Government Index, which decreased 4.3 percent to 118.8 from 124.2 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 1.3 percent to 795.8 from 806.2. The four week moving average is down 0.4 percent to 492.2 from 494.0 for the Purchase Index while this average is down 2.3 percent to 2562.0 from 2622.5 for the Refinance Index.
The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 42.9 percent of total applications from 45.7 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 29.4 percent of total applications from 28.5 percent the previous week.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages remained at 5.72 percent, with points increasing to 1.31 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 5.32 percent from 5.28 percent one week earlier, with points decreasing to 1.25 from 1.26 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.
The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 4.70 percent from 4.63 percent one week earlier, with points decreasing to 0.98 from 0.99 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.
Source: MBA
Contact ALTA at 202-296-3671 or communications@alta.org.