WASHINGTON, D.C - The Mortgage Bankers Association released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending October 31, 2008. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 379.9, a decrease of 20.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 476.7 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 21.1 percent compared with the previous week and was down 43.4 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.
The Refinance Index decreased 27.8 percent to 1075.4 from the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 13.9 percent to 260.9 from one week earlier. The Conventional Purchase Index decreased 14.4 percent while the Government Purchase Index (largely FHA) decreased 12.8 percent.
The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is down 4.7 percent. The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index is down 4.4 percent, while this average is down 4.9 percent for the Refinance Index.
The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 42.9 percent of total applications from 46.9 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage share of activity increased to 2.5 percent from 1.9 percent of total applications from the previous week.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 6.47 percent from 6.26 percent, with points increasing to 1.19 from 1.10 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value ratio loans.
The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 6.14 percent from 6.01 percent, with points increasing to 1.22 from 1.15 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value loans.
The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 6.86 percent from 6.90 percent, with points increasing to 0.42 from 0.21 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value loans.
