Latest Mortgage Bankers' Index Drops 6.3% in Week

The Mortgage Bankers Association's latest weekly Mortgage Composite Index shows applications slid 6.3% on seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier to 495.4. On an unadjusted basis, the index for the week ending July 24 decreased 6.0% from the previous week and increased 16.1% compared with the same week one year earlier. The Refinance Index declined 10.9% to 1862.1 from 2089.7 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index remained unchanged from one week earlier at 262.0. The four-week moving average for the seasonally adjusted overall Market Index is up 2.6%, and while it is down 0.5% for the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index, this average is up 5.2% for the Refinance Index. The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 52.6% of total applications from 55.5% the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage share of activity increased to 5.5% from 4.8% of total applications from the previous week. Average contract interest rates and points (including the origination fee) for 80% loan-to-value ratio loans during the week ending July 24 were: for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, 5.36%, up from 5.31% the week before, with points decreasing to 0.93 from 1.18; for 15-year FRMs, 4.75%, down from 4.80%, with points increasing to 1.14 from 1.03; for one-year ARMs, 6.66%, up from 6.50%, with points decreasing to 0.09 from 0.11. Starting next week, the MBA plans to no longer publicly report index values but said it will continue to provide index percentages.