RISMEDIA, October 28, 2010—The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending October 22, 2010. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 3.2% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 3.1% compared with the previous week.
The Refinance Index increased 3.0% from the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 3.9% from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 3.5% compared with the previous week and was 30.3% lower than the same week one year ago.
The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is up 1.4%. The four week moving average is down 0.7% for the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index, while this average is up 1.9% for the Refinance Index.
The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 82.3% of total applications from 82.4% the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 5.3% from 5.8% of total applications the previous week.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 4.25% from 4.34%, with points increasing to 1.0 from 0.81 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans. The 30-year contract rate matches the rate from the week ending October 1, 2010, which was the second lowest ever observed in this survey. The effective rate also decreased from last week.
The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 3.67% from 3.74%, with points decreasing to 0.96 from 1.00 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The 15-year contract rate is the second lowest observed in this survey, with the lowest being 3.62% from two weeks ago. The effective rate also decreased from last week.
For more information, visit www.mortgagebankers.org.
