Washington, D.C., October 12, 2005--The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending October 7.
The Market Composite Index — a measure of mortgage loan application volume – was 694.8, a decrease of 2.6% on a seasonally adjusted basis from 713.5, one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 2.6% compared with the previous week but was up 5.4% compared with the same week one year earlier.
The seasonally-adjusted Purchase Index decreased by 0.9% to 469.5 from 473.8 the previous week whereas the Refinance Index decreased by 4.9% to 2004.9 from 2107.4 one week earlier. Other seasonally adjusted index activity includes the Conventional Index, which decreased 2.6% to 1040.9 from 1068.9 the previous week, and the Government Index, which decreased 2.6% to 117.2 from 120.3 the previous week.
On a year-over-year basis both the seasonally-adjusted Purchase Index and Refinance Index are higher. The seasonally-adjusted Purchase Index is 7.4% higher than the same time last year while the Refinance Index is up 2.9%.
The four week moving average for the seasonally-adjusted Market Index is down 2.2% to 725.4 from 741.9. The four week moving average is down 2.2% to 481.7 from 492.7 for the Purchase Index while this average is down 2.2% to 2143.2 from 2191.6 for the Refinance Index.
The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 43.5% of total applications from 44.5% the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 29.5% of total applications from 29.8% the previous week.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 5.98% from 5.94% on week earlier, with points increasing to 1.22 from 1.21 (including the origination fee) for 80% loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans.
The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages remained at 5.55%, with points increasing to 1.19 from 1.15 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.
The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 5.26% from 5.13% one week earlier, with points decreasing to 0.96 from 0.98 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans.
The difference between the average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed rate mortgages and for one-year ARM’s decreased to 0.72 basis points. This is the lowest spread since March 9, 2001.
