The Market Composite Index of mortgage loan applications, a measure of mortgage loan applications for purchases and refinancings, increased by 30.4 percent to 916.1 on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ending Jan. 16 compared to 702.6 one week earlier, according to the most recent report by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released today. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased by 35.7 percent for the week ending Jan. 16 compared with the previous week and decreased 19.6 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.
The MBA's seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased by 12.5 percent to 501.6 for the week ending Jan. 16 from 445.9 the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Refinance Index increased by 51.5 percent to 3,327.3 for the week ending Jan. 16 from 2,195.7 one week earlier.
"Spurred by mortgage rates below 6 percent, the Purchase Index reached a record high and the Refinance Index increased by over 51 percent last week," said Jay Brinkmann, MBA's vice president of research and economics. "The Refinance Index increase marks the highest week to week percent increase since the week ending Jan. 12, 2001."
The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 57.7 percent of total applications for the week ending Jan. 16 from 51.6 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 27.8 percent for the week ending Jan. 16 compared to 26.6 percent the previous week, according to the report.
Posted by gandlwoods at January 25, 2004 07:38 AM