Mortgage Bankers' Applications Rise Despite Last Week's Rate Jump

There was an apparent anomaly in the findings of the Mortgage Bankers Association's latest Weekly Applications Survey, which showed long-term rates, refinancing and total apps all increased during the week ended July 17. Rates on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage increased, but also there was an increase in Market Composite Index and its refinance component. The MCI was 528.9, an increase of 2.8% on a seasonally adjusted basis from 514.4 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the index increased 2.9% compared with the previous week and increased 6.6% compared with the same week one year earlier. The Refinance Index increased 4% to 2089.7 from 2009.4 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 1.3% to 262.1 from 258.8. The share of refinancing applications saw a slight increase to 55.5% from 54.9% a week ago. The share of adjustable-rate mortgages applications decreased to 4.8% from 5% for the previous week, the MBA said. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages rose to 5.31% from 5.05%, with points (including the origination fee) increasing to 1.18 from 1.12 for loans with 80% loan-to-value ratios, the association said. The average contract interest rate for 15-year FRMs rose 21 basis points to 4.8%, while for one-year adjustable-rate loans, it increased by 3 bps to 6.5%. The MBA can be found online at http://www.mortgagebankers.org.