MBA Weekly Survey: Strong refinance activity continues unabated MortgagePress.comMBA, statistics, refinance, Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey, Market Composite Index, Refinance Index, Government Purchase Index
The Mortgage Bankers Association has released its Weekly
Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending March 27, 2009.
The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application
volume, was 1194.4, an increase of 3.0 percent on a seasonally
adjusted basis from 1159.4 one week earlier. On an unadjusted
basis, the Index increased 2.9 percent compared with the previous
week and 68.8 percent compared with the same week one year
earlier.
The Refinance Index increased 3.7 percent to 6600.1 from 6363.2
the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index
increased 0.1 percent to 268.0 from 267.8 one week earlier. The
Conventional Purchase Index increased 1.0 percent while the
Government Purchase Index (largely FHA) decreased 1.4 percent.
The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market
Index is up 16.0 percent. The four week moving average is up 3.1
percent for the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index, while this
average is up 20.3 percent for the Refinance Index.
The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 79.1
percent of total applications from 78.5 percent the previous week.
The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to
1.5 percent from 1.4 percent of total applications from the
previous week.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate
mortgages decreased to 4.61 percent from 4.63 percent, with points
decreasing to 1.03 from 1.13 (including the origination fee) for 80
percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans. The contract rate is a new
record low for the survey, which began in 1990.
The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate
mortgages decreased to 4.45 percent from 4.48 percent, with points
decreasing to 1.04 from 1.07 (including the origination fee) for 80
percent LTV loans.
The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased
to 6.20 percent from 6.22 percent, with points decreasing to 0.14
from 0.15 (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.
