Apps Drop as Refi Index Dives

Mortgage applications dropped 17% on a seasonally adjusted (and holiday-adjusted) basis for the week ended Nov. 29 as the Refinance Index plunged more than 1,500 points, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association of America's Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey.On an unadjusted basis, applications were down 43.5% on the week and 10.8% from the level recorded a year earlier. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the Purchase Index rose from 350.2 to 386.6, while the Refinance Index plummeted from 5672.3 to 4151.9. Refinancings represented 69.5% of total applications, down from 76.6% the previous week, while adjustable-rate mortgages accounted for 14.0%. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages climbed from 6.00% to 6.09%, and points (including the origination fee) decreased from 1.54 to 1.51 for loans with 80% loan-to-value ratios, the MBA reported. The MBA can be found online at http://www.mbaa.org.