Mortgage Applications Decrease

¹²Mortgage Applications Decrease In Latest MBA Weekly Survey

By Carolyn Kemp, MBA | 15 April 2010

WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 14, 2010)— The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending April 9, 2010. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 9.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 9.5 percent compared with the previous week. This is the third lowest Market Index recorded in the survey since the end of June 2009.

"Applications for government mortgages dropped substantially last week, following the implementation of an increase in FHA mortgage insurance premiums," said Mike Fratantoni, MBA's Vice President of Research and Economics. "Applications for conventional mortgages also dropped last week, with refinance application volume continuing to drop following last week's jump in rates". The Refinance Index decreased 9.0 percent from the previous week, marking the index's fifth consecutive decline.

The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 10.5 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 10.0 percent compared with the previous week and was 17.5 percent lower than the same week one year ago. The decline in purchase applications was driven by government purchase applications, which decreased 19.1 percent from last week, compared to a decrease of 2.0 percent in conventional purchase applications.

The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is down 6.2 percent. The four week moving average is down 0.9 percent for the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index, while this average is down 8.8 percent for the Refinance Index. The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 58.9 percent of total applications from 58.7 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 6.3 percent from 6.2 percent of total applications from the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.17 percent from 5.31 percent, with points increasing to 0.91 from 0.64 (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 4.45 percent from 4.54 percent, with points decreasing to 0.80 from 0.92 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rates also decreased from last week for both types of mortgages.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 7.02 percent from 7.03 percent, with points decreasing to 0.27 from 0.29 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. 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.