Mortgage Demands Fall in Latest Week

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending October 23, 2009. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 12.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 2.8 percent compared with the previous week, which included the Columbus Day holiday.

The Refinance Index decreased 16.2 percent from the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 5.2 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 4.8 percent compared with the previous week, which was a holiday shortened week, and was 15.4 percent lower than the same week one year ago.

The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is down 3.1 percent. The four week moving average is down 1.4 percent for the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index, while this average is down 4.1 percent for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 62.3 percent of total applications from 65.0 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 6.9 percent from 6.4 percent of total applications from the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.04 percent from 5.07 percent, with points increasing to 1.25 from 1.13 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans.

It's no surprise that refinancing activity is off. Mortgage rates have risen with the rate on a 30-year mortgage refinance now at 5.104%. It was below 5% two months ago. Everyone who would have refinanced already has.

I spoke to a mortgage broker last night and he told me that the people he speaks to now don't have enough equity in their homes. Most are stuck and can't refinance even if they wanted to.