RISMEDIA, May 1, 2009-The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending April 24, 2009. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 960.6, a decrease of 18.1% on a seasonally adjusted basis from 1,172.2 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 17.4% compared with the previous week and increased 62.7% compared with the same week one year earlier.
The Refinance Index decreased 21.9% to 5,108.2 from 6,540.7 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 0.6% to 251.6 from 253.0 one week earlier. The Conventional Purchase Index decreased 1.4% while the Government Purchase Index (largely FHA) increased 0.8%.
The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is down 4.9 %. The four week moving average is down 1.5% for the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index, while this average is down 5.7% for the Refinance Index.
The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 75.3% of total applications from 79.7% the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 2.1% from 1.4% of total applications from the previous week.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 4.62% from 4.73%, with points increasing to 1.14 from 1.12 (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 4.45% from 4.46%, with points decreasing to 0.96 from 1.18 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.
The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 6.23% from 6.19%, with points decreasing to 0.12 from 0.14 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.
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