Mortgage Bankers' Weekly Applications Decline

Loan applications as measured by the Mortgage Bankers Association's weekly survey inched down from one week earlier. The MBA's Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage application volume, fell 1.8% on a seasonally adjusted basis and 1.7% on an unadjusted basis during the week ended Oct. 9. The Refinance Index fell by just 0.1% from the previous week, but the percentage of refinances in the market as a whole increased to 67.4% from 66.3% and the Refinance Index's four-week moving average rose 8%. The four-week moving average for the Market Index rose by 5.6%. This average was up 1.6% for the Purchase Index. On a seasonally adjusted week-to-week basis, the Purchase Index was down 5% and on an unadjusted basis it is down 4.8%. On a year-to-year basis for the week, the unadjusted Purchase Index was down 6.8%. Adjustable-rate mortgage applications increased slightly to 6.2% of total applications from 6.1% the week before. According to the MBA, the average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages during the week rose to 5.02% from 4.89%, with points (including the origination fee) dropping to 1.11 from 1.13 for mortgages with 80% loan-to-value ratios. The average contract interest rate for 15-year FRMs during the period rose to 4.44% from 4.32% with points remaining unchanged at 1.04 for 80% LTV loans. The average contract interest rate for one-year adjustable-rate mortgages rose to 6.71% from 6.56% with points rising to 0.32 from 0.30 for 80% LTV loans. The MBA at one time provided index values with its weekly survey but no longer does.