Mortgage application volume rebounded slightly, driven by an increase in refinance demand during the week between Christmas and New Year's Day, according to new figures released by the Mortgage Bankers Association.
The trade group released data for two separate weeks. For the period ended Dec. 24, application volume dropped 3.9% from the previous week. But during the following week, application volume was up 2.3%.
For the first week, the refinance index fell by 7.2%, while purchase application volume reversed a two-week slide to increase by 3.1%.
But in the last week of 2010, refinance applications increased by 3.9% while purchase applications fell by a scant 0.8%.
The market share of refi applications was 70.3% for the first week and 71% for the second week. MBA tracks activity through its proprietary application index; it released two weeks worth of results because the group's offices were closed for vacation last week.
During the last week of the year, seven consecutive weeks of increases in the average contract interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage ended. For the week ended Dec. 24, the rate went from 4.84% to 4.93%, with points decreasing from 0.96 to 0.63 (including the origination fee) for loans with an 80% loan-to-value ratio. The next week, this rate fell to 4.82%, with points increasing to 1.11.
Rates for the 15-year FRM were unchanged for the first week at 4.22% and increased one basis point to 4.23%, for the second. Points increased from 1.19 to 1.34 for the first week, but came back down to 1.00 in the second week.
