This week in the mortgage industry: Refinance up… rates down. From the MBA:
WASHINGTON, D.C. (February 18, 2009) — The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending February 13, 2009. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 875.3, an increase of 45.7 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 600.6 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 47.7 percent compared with the previous week and 5.2 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.
The Refinance Index increased 64.3 percent to 4472.9 from 2722.7 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 9.1 percent to 257.3 from 235.9 one week earlier. The Conventional Purchase Index increased 10.9 percent while the Government Purchase Index (largely FHA) increased 5.5 percent.
The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is down 9.6 percent. The four week moving average is down 4.2 percent for the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index, while this average is down 12.2 percent for the Refinance Index.
The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 74.2 percent of total applications from 66.7 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 1.7 percent from 2.5 percent of total applications from the previous week.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 4.99 percent from 5.19 percent, with points increasing to 1.37 from 1.20 (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 4.66 percent from 5.00 percent, with points increasing to 1.22 from 1.21 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.
The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 6.10 percent from 6.22 percent, with points increasing to 0.23 from 0.22 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.
