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Quiet Week for Mortgage Applications, Interest Rates

by devteam February 15th, 2012 | Share

Applications for both home purchase and refinancernwere essentially flat during the week ended February 10.  The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA)rnMarket Composite Index, derived from its Weekly Mortgage Applications Surveyrnwas down 1.0 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from the previous week andrnvirtually unchanged on an unadjusted basis.</p

The Refinance Index increased a slight 0.8 percentrnfrom the week ended February 3 but this was enough to bring it to the highestrnlevel since late summer.  The seasonally adjustedrnPurchase Index was down 8.4 percent and down 3.3 percent on an unadjustedrnbasis.  The later number was 7.6 percentrnlower than during the same week in 2011.</p

The four week moving averages for the seasonallyrnadjusted Market and Purchase Indices were down 0.45 percent and 3.87 percentrnrespectively and up 0.21 percent for the Refinance Index.  Applications for refinancing made up 81.1 ofrnthe total application volume, up from 80.5 percent from the previous week and thernshare of adjustable-rate mortgages (ARM) decreased from 6.0 percent to 5.4rnpercent.
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Purchase Index vs 30 Yr Fixed</b</p

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Refinance Index vs 30 Yr Fixed</p

ChartManager.loadChart(‘refiappschart’, ‘RefiMtgAppChart’);

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Interest rates during the week were mixed.  The average rate for a 30-year fixed-raternmortgage (FRM) with a conforming balance of $417,500 or less increased to 4.08rnpercent with 0.51 point from 4.05 percent with 0.44 point.  The effective rate also increased.</p

Thirty-yearrnjumbo FRM, those with a beginning balance larger than $417,500, had an averagernrate of 4.30 percent with 0.44 point compared to 4.29 percent with 0.43 point arnweek earlier.  The effective raternincreased as well.  </p

Thernonly loan type with a lower rate than that of the previous week was thern30-yearrnFRM backed by FHA.  FHA loan ratesrndecreased 2 basis points to 3.87 percent with points unchanged at 0.78 and therneffective rate decreased. </p

Thernrate for the 15-year FRM was unchangedrnat 3.33 percent, with points increasing to 0.40 from 0.37rnand the effective rate was also unchanged. rn   </p

Rates forrn5/1 ARMs increasedrnto 2.93 percent from 2.91 percent, with points increasingrnto 0.42 from 0.40.  The effective rate increased.rn</p

Thernabove rates are based on loans with an 80 percent loan to value ratio.  Points include the origination fee.</p

MBA reports that the average loan size in the U.S.rnduring the month of January was $226,000. rnThe average loan size has been increasing in recent months and January’srnaverage loan was $1,000 higher than an average loan in December and was up fromrn$207,000 in January 2011.  The range ofrnaverage loans was $143,000 in Indiana to $375,000 in Washington, DC.  Loans for home purchases averaged $217,000 andrnfor refinancing the average was $228,000.</p

MBA’srnweekly survey covers over 75 percent of all U.S. retail and consumer directrnresidential mortgage applications, and has been conducted weekly sincern1990.  Respondents include mortgage bankers, commercial banks andrnthrifts.  Base period and value for all indexes is March 16, 1990=100.

All Content Copyright © 2003 – 2009 Brown House Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.nReproduction in any form without permission of MortgageNewsDaily.com is prohibited.

About the Author

devteam

Steven A Feinberg (@CPAsteve) of Appletree Business Services LLC, is a PASBA member accountant located in Londonderry, New Hampshire.

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