Mortgage Refinance Applications Increase in Latest MBA Weekly Survey

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending October 30, 2009. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 8.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 7.9 percent compared with the previous week.

The Refinance Index increased 14.5 percent from the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 1.8 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 3.0 percent compared with the previous week and was 3.4 percent lower than the same week one year ago.

The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is down 5.5 percent. The four week moving average is down 5.0 percent for the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index, while this average is down 5.7 percent for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 66.1 percent of total applications from 62.3 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 6.1 percent from 6.9 percent of total applications from the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 4.97 percent from 5.04 percent, with points decreasing to 1.01 from 1.25 (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 4.33 percent from 4.53 percent, with points increasing to 1.33 from 0.78 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 6.83 percent from 6.79 percent, with points increasing to 0.31 from 0.29 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

**SPECIAL NOTES**

Please be advised that the press release and survey results for the week ending November 6th will be released on Thursday, November 12th due to the Veterans' Day holiday on Wednesday, November 11th.

The index values are no longer included in MBA's Weekly Applications Survey press release, only the percentage changes. If you would like to subscribe to MBA's Weekly Applications Survey, please contact MBA Research at (202) 557-2830 or mbaresearch@mortgagebankers.org or click here.

Media inquiries should be directed to Carolyn Kemp at (202) 557-2727 or ckemp@mortgagebankers.org.

The survey covers over 50 percent of all U.S. retail residential mortgage applications, and has been conducted weekly since 1990. Respondents include mortgage bankers, commercial banks and thrifts. Base period and value for all indexes is March 16, 1990=100.