Low rates boost refinance activity in latest MBA Weekly SurveyMortgagePress.comMortgage Bankers Association, Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey, Market Composite Index, Refinance Index, Conventional Purchase Index
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) has released its Weekly
Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending March 13, 2009.
The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application
volume, was 876.9, an increase of 21.2 percent on a seasonally
adjusted basis from 723.4 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis,
the Index increased 20.7 percent compared with the previous week
and 31.2 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.
The Refinance Index increased 29.6 percent to 4497.6 from 3470.7
the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index
increased 1.5 percent to 257.1 from 253.3 one week earlier. The
Conventional Purchase Index increased 2.1 percent while the
Government Purchase Index (largely FHA) increased 0.4 percent.
The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market
Index is up 0.1 percent. The four week moving average is unchanged
for the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index, while this average is
up 0.2 percent for the Refinance Index.
The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 72.9
percent of total applications from 67.9 percent the previous week.
The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to
2.0 percent from 2.3 percent of total applications from the
previous week.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate
mortgages decreased to 4.89 percent from 4.96 percent, with points
increasing to 1.23 from 1.16 (including the origination fee) for 80
percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans. The contract rate ties the
survey's record low reached in January 2009.
The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate
mortgages decreased to 4.52 percent from 4.54 percent, with points
decreasing to 1.18 from 1.20 (including the origination fee) for 80
percent LTV loans.
The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased
to 6.20 percent from 6.21 percent, with points decreasing to 0.14
from 0.16 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV
loans.
The survey covers approximately 50 percent of all U.S. retail
residential mortgage applications, and has been conducted weekly
since 1990. Respondents include mortgage bankers, commercial banks
and thrifts. Base period and value for all indexes is March 16,
1990=100.
For more information, visit www.mortgagebankers.org.
