Mortgage Applications Increase in Latest MBA Weekly Survey

RISMEDIA, July 24, 2009-The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending July 17, 2009. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 528.9, an increase of 2.8% on a seasonally adjusted basis from 514.4 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 2.9% compared with the previous week and increased 6.6 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The Refinance Index increased 4.0% to 2089.7 from 2009.4 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 1.3% to 262.1 from 258.8 one week earlier.

The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is down 1.0%. The four week moving average is down 1.7% for the Purchase Index, while this average is down 0.4% for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 55.5% of total applications from 54.9% the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 4.8% from 5.0% of total applications from the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 5.31% from 5.05%, with points increasing to 1.18 from 1.12 (including the origination fee) for 80% loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans.

The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 4.80% from 4.59%, with points decreasing to 1.03 from 1.07 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 6.50% from 6.47%, with points remaining unchanged at 0.11 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans.

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