Mortgage Application Volumes Still Declining, Say MBA

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The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending June 18, 2010.  The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 5.9 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier.  On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 6.0 percent compared with the previous week.

The Refinance Index decreased 7.3 percent from the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 1.2 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 2.3 percent compared with the previous week and was 36.8 percent lower than the same week one year ago.

The decline in total purchase applications was driven by a 4.4 percent decrease in government applications, while conventional purchase applications increased by 1.0 percent.

The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is down 0.5 percent.  The four week moving average is down 1.1 percent for the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index, while this average is down 0.4 percent for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 73.8 percent of total applications from 74.8 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 4.9 percent from 5.2 percent of total applications from the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 4.75 percent from 4.82 percent, with points increasing to 1.07 from 0.89 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans.  This is the lowest 30-year contract rate observed in the survey since the week ending May 15, 2009. The effective rate also decreased from last week.

The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 4.19 percent from 4.23 percent, with points increasing to 1.00 from 0.83 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. Due to the increase in points, the effective rate is unchanged from last week.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 7.05 percent from 7.07 percent, with points remaining constant at 0.27 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

 

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