The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) has released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending May 29, 2009. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 658.7, a decrease of 16.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 786.0 one week earlier. This week's results include an adjustment to account for the Memorial Day holiday. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 32.5 percent compared with the previous week and increased 14.4 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.
The Refinance Index decreased 24.1 percent to 2953.6 from 3890.4 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 4.3 percent to 267.7 from 256.6 one week earlier.
The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is down 9.0 percent. The four week moving average is up 0.3 percent for the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index, while this average is down 12.0 percent for the Refinance Index.
The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 62.4 percent of total applications from 69.3 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 3.0 percent from 2.6 percent of total applications from the previous week.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 5.25 percent from 4.81 percent, with points decreasing to 1.02 from 1.28 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans. The 44 basis point increase in the 30-year rate was the largest since a 48 basis point increase in October 2008.
The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 4.8 percent from 4.44 percent, with points decreasing to 1.10 from 1.16 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.
The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 6.61 percent from 6.55 percent, with points increasing to 0.15 from 0.12 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.
The survey covers over 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.
