Mortgage Refinance Applications Rebound as Rates Fall

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(WASHINGTON, DC) -- According to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) newly released Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending January 15, 2010, increased 9.1 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 10.4 percent compared with the previous week and decreased 52.3 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume.

The Refinance Index increased 10.7 percent from the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 4.4 percent from one week earlier.  The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 9.8 compared with the previous week and was 19.1 percent lower than the same week one year ago.

The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is down 1.0 percent.  The four week moving average is up 1.1 percent for the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index, while this average is down 2.4 percent for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 71.7 percent of total applications from 71.5 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 4.1 percent from 4.0 percent of total applications from the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.00 percent from 5.13 percent, with points decreasing to 1.05 from 1.17 (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 4.33 percent from 4.45 percent, with points increasing to 1.19 from 1.04 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 6.72 percent from 6.83 percent; with points remaining unchanged at 0.31 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

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