Mortgage Apps Tumble, Drop 14 Percent

The Mortgage Bankers Association today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending December 22. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 555.8, a decrease of 14.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 647.6 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 15 percent compared with the previous week and was up 16.6 percent compared with the same week one year earlier. The Refinance Index decreased by 18.5 percent to 1604.6 from 1968.8 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased by 10.6 percent to 390.2 from 436.5 one week earlier. Despite the decrease in both indexes from last week, the Refinance Index remained 41.6 percent higher than in the same week one year ago, when it was 1259.1, while the Purchase Index’s unadjusted value of 289.8 was virtually unchanged from the same week one year ago, when it was 290.2. The seasonally adjusted Conventional Index decreased by 14.3 percent to 826.1 from 963.9 the previous week, and the seasonally adjusted Government Index decreased 12.4 percent to 105.4 from 120.3 the previous week. The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is down 1.7 percent to 643.1 from 653.9. The four week moving average is down 1 percent to 429.3 from 433.4 for the Purchase Index, while this average is down 1.8 percent to 1966.9 from 2003.1 for the Refinance Index. The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 48.8 percent of total applications from 50.8 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 23.1 from 23.6 percent of total applications from the previous week. The ARM share is at its lowest level since October 2003. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 6.12 from 6.10 percent, with points increasing to 0.96 from 0.93 (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 5.84 percent from 5.82 percent, with points increasing to 1.06 from 0.99 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 5.87 percent from 5.82, with points decreasing to 0.80 from 0.83 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.