Mortgage Applications up This Week, Refinance Activity Down

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According to the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) latest Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending April 30, the Market Composite Index, increased 4.0 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier.  On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 5.1 percent compared with the previous week.

The Refinance Index decreased 2.1 percent from the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 13.0 percent from one week earlier.  This is the third consecutive weekly increase in purchase applications and the highest Purchase Index recorded in the survey since the week ending October 2, 2009. The Conventional Purchase Index increased 9.4 percent from the previous week while the Government Purchase Index increased 16.7 percent. The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 14.1 percent compared with the previous week and was 10.3 percent higher than the same period one year ago.

"Purchase application activity continued to increase in the last week of the homebuyer tax credit program," said Michael Fratantoni, MBA's Vice President of Research and Economics.  "Purchase applications were up 13 percent over the previous week and almost 24 percent over the last month, driven by significant increases in both conventional and government purchase applications. We also saw the Government share of applications for purchasing a home increase to over 50 percent of all purchase applications last week, which is the highest in two decades."

The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is up 0.9 percent.  The four week moving average is up 5.0 percent for the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index, while this average is down 1.5 percent for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 51.9 percent of total applications from 55.7 percent the previous week. This is the lowest refinance share observed in the survey since the week ending July 3, 2009. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 6.3 percent from 6.0 percent of total applications from the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.02 percent from 5.08 percent, with points increasing to 0.92 from 0.91 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans.  The effective rate decreased five basis points from last week.

The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 4.34 percent from 4.38 percent, with points decreasing to 0.80 from 0.93 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.  The effective rate decreased six basis points from last week.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs remained unchanged at 7.03 percent, with points decreasing to 0.28 from 0.30 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

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