Mortgage Applications Increase

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(WASHINGTON, D.C.) -- The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending December 4, 2009.  The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 8.5 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier.  On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 54.0 percent compared with the previous week, which was a shortened week due to the Thanksgiving holiday.

The Refinance Index increased 11.1 percent from the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 4.0 percent from one week earlier.  The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 41.7 percent compared with the previous week and was 18.8 percent lower than the same week one year ago.  The increase in purchase applications reflected a 10.0 percent increase in Government Purchase applications and a 0.2 percent decrease in Conventional Purchase applications, both on a seasonally adjusted basis.

The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is up 1.5 percent.  The four week moving average is up 2.3 percent for the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index, while this average is up 1.6 percent for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 74.4 percent of total applications from 72.1 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 4.7 percent from 4.8 percent of total applications the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 4.88 percent from 4.79 percent, with points increasing to 1.17 from 1.00 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans. This ends a six week run of declining 30-year fixed rates which may have triggered the increase in refinance applications.

The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 4.33 percent from 4.27 percent, with points decreasing to 1.02 from 1.33 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 6.55 percent from 6.56 percent, with points increasing to 0.38 from 0.34 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

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