Mortgage Applications Increase This Week

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According to the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) latest Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending April 16, the Market Composite Index increased 13.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier.  On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 13.9 percent compared with the previous week.

"Treasury rates fell last week causing a decline in mortgage rates.  As a result, refinance applications picked up over the week, as some borrowers took advantage of this recent rate volatility to lock in a low fixed-rate loan," said Michael Fratantoni, MBA's Vice President of Research and Economics.  "Purchase applications continued to increase coming out of the Easter holiday, as we approach the end of the homebuyer tax credit, and are up modestly over last month."

The Refinance Index increased 15.8 percent from the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 10.1 percent from one week earlier.  The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 11.0 percent compared with the previous week and was 5.2 percent lower than the same week one year ago.

The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is down 3.1 percent.  The four week moving average is up 2.0 percent for the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index, while this average is down 5.9 percent for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 60.0 percent of total applications from 58.9 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 6.0 percent from 6.3 percent of total applications from the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.04 percent from 5.17 percent, with points increasing to 0.98 from 0.91 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans.  The effective rate also decreased from last week.

The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 4.34 percent from 4.45 percent, with points increasing to 0.98 from 0.80 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.  The effective rate also decreased from last week.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 6.95 percent from 7.02 percent, with points increasing to 0.28 from 0.27 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

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