Mortgage Applications Jump In January!
Fueled by the 4.4% increased demand in home purchases as well as the drop in interest rates, mortgage applications surged in the first half of January.
Home refinancing was still the major driving factor posting a 10.7% as increase and representing over 70% of all the mortgage business.
Homeowners scrambled to take advantage of the 30 year mortgage dropping to 5%
The Mortgage Bankers Association reports that their index of total home loan applications rose 9.1 percent in the week ended Jan. 15 to 575.9
Here is the Mortgage Banker’s Association Press release
WASHINGTON, D.C. (January 20, 2010) — The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending January 15, 2010. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 9.1 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 10.4 percent compared with the previous week and decreased 52.3 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.The Refinance Index increased 10.7 percent from the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 4.4 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 9.8 compared with the previous week and was 19.1 percent lower than the same week one year ago.
The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is down 1.0 percent. The four week moving average is up 1.1 percent for the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index, while this average is down 2.4 percent for the Refinance Index.
The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 71.7 percent of total applications from 71.5 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 4.1 percent from 4.0 percent of total applications from the previous week.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.00 percent from 5.13 percent, with points decreasing to 1.05 from 1.17 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans.
The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 4.33 percent from 4.45 percent, with points increasing to 1.19 from 1.04 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.
The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 6.72 percent from 6.83 percent, with points remaining unchanged at 0.31 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.
**SPECIAL NOTES**
The index values are no longer included in MBA’s Weekly Applications Survey press release, only the percentage changes. If you would like to subscribe to MBA’s Weekly Applications Survey, please contact MBA Research at (202) 557-2830 or mbaresearch@mortgagebankers.org or click here.
Media inquiries should be directed to Carolyn Kemp at (202) 557-2727 or ckemp@mortgagebankers.org.
The survey covers over 50 percent of all U.S. retail residential mortgage applications, and has been conducted weekly since 1990. Respondents include mortgage bankers, commercial banks and thrifts. Base period and value for all indexes is March 16, 1990=100.
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