Applications See 2.8% Seasonally Adjusted Drop During Week

The Mortgage Bankers Association's Market Composite Index, a measure of loan application volume, declined 2.8% on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ended Sept. 25, even though the average rate for the 30-year fixed rate mortgage remained under 5%. The Refinance Index showed only a slight 0.8% decline from the previous week, while the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index fell 6.2% from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the index decreased 3.1% compared with the previous week and 44.3% compared with the same week one year earlier. But even as the number of refinancing applications declined, their market share increased to 65.3% of total applications, up from 63.8% the previous week. The share of adjustable-rate mortgage applications declined to 6.2% for the week, down from 6.7% one week prior. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 4.94% from 4.97%, with points falling to 0.94 from 1.12 (including the origination fee) for loans with an 80% loan-to-value ratio, the association reported. The average contract interest rate for 15-year FRMs remained fell 7 basis points from the previous week, to 4.34% from 4.41%, while for one-year adjustable-rate loans, it decreased by 12 bps to 6.4%. The index is calculated from MBA's Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey and the organization stopped disclosing index values with the July 31 data release. The MBA can be found online at http://www.mortgagebankers.org.