RISMEDIA, January 17, 2011—The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending January 7, 2011. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 2.2% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 47.5% compared with the previous week, which included the New Year’s holiday.
The Refinance Index increased 4.9% from the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 3.7% from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 41.9% compared with the previous week and was 10.5% lower than the same week one year ago.
The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is down 5.3%. The four week moving average is down 1.0% for the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index, while this average is down 7.5% for the Refinance Index.
The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 72.1% of total applications from 71.0% the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 4.9% from 5.0% of total applications in the previous week.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 4.78% from 4.82%, with points decreasing to 0.91 from 1.10 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans. This is the second straight decline for the 30-year fixed rate, which is now 15 basis points lower than the survey’s seven-month high observed two weeks ago. The effective rate also decreased from last week.
The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 4.15% from 4.23%, with points increasing to 1.01 from 1.00 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate also decreased from last week.
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