RISMEDIA, September 23, 2010—The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending September 17, 2010. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 1.4% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 22.9% compared with the previous week, which included the Labor Day holiday.
The Refinance Index decreased 0.9% from the previous week, which is the third straight weekly decrease. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 3.3% from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 18.9% compared with the previous week and was 38.0% lower than the same week one year ago.
The four-week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is down 2.3%. The four week moving average is up 1.0% for the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index, while this average is down 3.0% for the Refinance Index.
The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 81.1% of total applications from 80.5% the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 5.9% from 6.2% of total applications from the previous week.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 4.44% from 4.47%, with points decreasing to 0.81 from 1.08 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans. The effective rate also decreased from last week.
The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 3.88% from 3.96%, with points decreasing to 0.86 from 1.03 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The contract 15-year rate is the lowest recorded in the survey, matching the rate from the week ending August 27, 2010. The effective rate also decreased from last week.
The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 6.96% from 6.89%, with points decreasing to 0.21 from 0.23 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.
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