MBA: Purchases, Refis Set New Records

The Market Composite Index, an overall measure of mortgage applications, hit a new record high of 1856.7 on a seasonally adjusted basis during the week ended May 30, up from 1634.6 the week before, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association of America's Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey.On an unadjusted basis, applications were down 9.2% on the week due to the Memorial Day holiday but up 202.7% from the level recorded a year earlier. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the Purchase Index increased to 460.5 from 395.7, and the Refinance Index climbed to a record high of 9977.8 from 8840.9. (The previous records of 416.0 for purchases and 9387.0 for refinances were set during the week ending March 14.) Despite reaching a record high on the refi index, the percentage of refinancings declined slightly to 76.7% of total applications from 77.1% the previous week, while adjustable-rate mortgages accounted for 13.1%. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages fell from a survey-record low of 5.14% to a new low of 5.13%, and points (including the origination fee) increased from 1.29 to 1.41 for loans with 80% loan-to-value ratios, the MBA reported. The MBA can be found online at http://www.mbaa.org.