Mortgage applications show slight increase

The Mortgage Bankers Association released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey July 28 for the week ending July 23.

The Market Composite Index of mortgage loan applications a measure of mortgage loan applications was 621.4, an increase of 0.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 617.9 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the index increased by 0.6 percent compared with last week but was down 34.7 percent compared with the same week in 2003.

The MBA seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased by 1 percent to 444.8 from 440.3 the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Refinance Index decreased by 0.1 percent to 1,648.8 from 1,651.1 one week earlier.

Other seasonally adjusted index activity included the Conventional Index, which increased 0.6 percent to 913.7 from 908.7 the previous week. The Government Index increased 0.8 percent to 133.9 from 132.8 the previous week.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 36.8 percent of total applications from 37.1 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage share of activity increased to 33.3 percent of total applications from 31.3 percent the previous week.

"The purchase market continues very strong, in line with the numbers we have seen for new home and existing homes sales. In addition, while the number of purchase applications has increased by 4 percent over the last year, the dollar volume of applications has increased by more than 15 percent, driven by an average purchase loan size that has increased to $215,800 last week versus $194,900 one year ago," said Jay Brinkmann, MBA's vice president of research and economics, in a news release.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages increased to 5.97 percent from 5.96 percent one week earlier, with points remaining at 1.32 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value ratio loans.

The average contract interest rate for 15-year, fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.33 percent from 5.34 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 1.41 from 1.38 the previous week (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year, adjustable-rate mortgages increased to 4.04 percent from 3.93 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 1.16 from 1.12 from the previous week (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

Half the picture

The survey covers approximately 50 percent of all U.S. retail residential mortgage originations, and has been conducted weekly since 1990. Respondents include mortgage bankers, commercial banks and thrifts. The base period and value for all indexes is March 16, 1990=100.