RISMEDIA, May 7, 2009-The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending May 1, 2009. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 979.7, an increase of 2.0% on a seasonally adjusted basis from 960.6 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 2.4% compared with the previous week and 43.7% compared with the same week one year earlier.
The Refinance Index increased 1.2% to 5,169.3 from 5,108.2 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 5.0% to 264.3 from 251.6 one week earlier. The Conventional Purchase Index increased 5.5% while the Government Purchase Index (largely FHA) increased 4.4%.
The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is down 6.0%. The four week moving average is down 3.1% for the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index, while this average is down 6.7% for the Refinance Index.
The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 74.4% of total applications from 75.3% the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity remained unchanged at 2.1% of total applications from the previous week.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 4.79% from 4.62%, with points increasing to 1.17 from 1.14 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans.
The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 4.57% from 4.45%, with points increasing to 1.07 from 0.96 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.
The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 6.36% from 6.23% with points remaining unchanged at 0.12 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.
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