Washington, DC, September 6, 2006--The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending September 1.
The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 566.3, an increase of 1.8 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 556.5 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 0.4 percent compared with the previous week but was down 26.1 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.
The seasonally-adjusted Purchase Index increased by 3.7 percent to 389.7 from 375.9 the previous week and the Refinance Index decreased by 0.9 percent to 1594.7 from 1609.2 one week earlier. Other seasonally adjusted index activity includes the Conventional Index, which increased by 1.5 percent to 838.7 from 826.7 the previous week, and the Government Index, which increased 5.8 percent to 112.1 from 106 the previous week.
The four week moving average for the seasonally-adjusted Market Index is up 0.6 percent to 561.4 from 558.1. The four week moving average is up 0.1 percent to 383.4 from 383.2 for the Purchase Index, while this average is up 1.2 percent to 1600 from 1580.8 for the Refinance Index.
The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 41.0 percent of total applications from 41.5 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 26.2 percent of total applications from 26.8 percent the previous week. The ARM share is at its lowest level since October 2003.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 6.31 percent from 6.39 percent, with points increasing to 1.10 from 1.03 (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 5.97 percent from 6.06 percent, with points increasing to 1.14 from 1.06 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.
The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 5.91 percent from 5.97 percent, with points decreasing to 0.83 from 0.91 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.
