Purchase applications hold steady, refis fall in latest MBA Weekly Survey

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) has released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending July 24, 2009. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 495.4, a decrease of 6.3 percent on a seasonally-adjusted basis from 528.9 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 6.0 percent compared with the previous week and increased 16.1 percent compared with the same week one year earlier. The Refinance Index decreased 10.9 percent to 1862.1 from 2089.7 the previous week and the seasonally-adjusted Purchase Index remained unchanged from one week earlier at 262.0. The four-week moving average for the seasonally-adjusted Market Index is up 2.6 percent. The four-week moving average is down 0.5 percent for the seasonally-adjusted Purchase Index, while this average is up 5.2 percent for the Refinance Index. The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 52.6 percent of total applications from 55.5 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 5.5 percent from 4.8 percent of total applications from the previous week. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 5.36 percent from 5.31 percent, with points decreasing to 0.93 from 1.18 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans. The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 4.75 percent from 4.80 percent, with points increasing to 1.14 from 1.03 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. For more information, visit www.mortgagebankers.org.