Mortgage Applications Increase This Week

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(WASHINGTON, D.C.) -- The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending December 11, 2009.  The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume increased 0.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier.  On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 0.3 percent compared with the previous week.
 
The Refinance Index increased 0.9 percent from the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 0.1 percent from one week earlier.  The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 3.6 percent compared with the previous week and was 15.4 percent lower than the same week one year ago.

The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is up 1.5 percent.  The four week moving average is up 4.2 percent for the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index, while this average is up 0.8 percent for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 75.2 percent of total applications from 74.4 percent the previous week. This is the highest refinance share observed in the survey since the week ending April 24, 2009. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 4.1 percent from 4.7 percent of total applications from the previous week, which is the lowest share since mid-June 2009.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 4.92 percent from 4.88 percent, with points decreasing to 1.08 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 remained flat at 4.33 percent, with points decreasing to 0.91 from 1.02 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 6.52 percent from 6.55 percent, with points increasing to 0.39 from 0.38 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

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