The Refinance Index, which is not seasonally adjusted, was down 12rnpercent from two weeks earlier while the share of refinancing applications rosernto 65 percent of all applications.  The marketrnshare comparison is to the week ended December 26 when refinancing made up 63rnpercent of applications.  During the weekrnended December 19 refinancing had a 67 percent share.</p

Refinance Index vs 30 Yr Fixed</p

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The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 5 percent for the periodrnwhile the unadjusted index was down 33 percent. rnIt was down 8 percent from the same week a year earlier.</p

Purchase Index vs 30 Yr Fixed</p

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Applications for most government-backed mortgages earned a higher marketrnshare than during the previous week.  FHArnmortgage applications increased to 9.3 percent of the total compared to 9.2rnpercent during the week ended December 26 while the VA share was 10.7 percentrncompared to 10.5 percent.  The share ofrnUSDA-backed mortgages was unchanged at 0.9 percent.  </p

Mortgage interest rates are also reported relative to the week ended Decemberrn26 and both contract and effective rates were lower across the board.  The average contract rate for 30-yearrnconforming fixed-rate mortgages (FRM) with balances of $417,000 or less wasrn4.01 percent with 0.28 point compared to 4.04 percent with 0.35 point the previousrnweek.  </p

Jumbo 30-year FRM had an average contract rate which declined from 4.05rnpercent to 3.99 percent.  Pointsrndecreased to 0.24 from 0.37.</p

Thirty-year FRM backed by the FHA had a rate of 3.82 percent, down 1rnbasis point from the previous week. rnPoints decreased to -0.03 from 0.08.</p

The average contract interest rate forrn15-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 3.24 percent from 3.32 percent.  Points fell to 0.30 from 0.36 </p

The share of applications for adjustablernrate mortgages (ARMs) was at its lowest rate in several years, dropping to arn4.9 percent share.  For most of 2014 ARMSrnconsistently comprised 8 percent of mortgage applications.  The average contract interest rate for 5/1rnARMs decreased to 3.19 percent from 3.26 percent, with points increasing to 0.51 from 0.48.</p

MBA’s survey covers over 75 percent of all U.S. retail residential mortgage applications, and has been conducted since 1990. Respondents include mortgage bankers,rncommercial banks and thrifts. Base period and value for all indexes isrnMarch 16, 1990=100.  Average and effective interest raterninformation is based on loans with an 80 percent loan to value ratio and pointsrninclude the origination fee.

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