Econintersect: Data released today from the The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) shows that for the week ending December 24, 2010, the Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 3.9 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from the prior week.
For the week ending December 31, 2010, this index increased 2.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis. Both weeks results include an adjustment to account for the Christmas and New Year’s Day holidays. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 23.7 percent the week before Christmas and 10.0 percent the week after.
The portion of loan applications for refinancing was 71.0% for the week ending December 31, 2010, an increase from 70.3% for the week ending December 24, 2010.
For the week ending December 24, 2010, the average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 4.93 percent from 4.84 percent, with points decreasing to 0.63 from 0.96 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) loans. For the week ending December 31, 2010, the average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 4.82 percent with points increasing to 1.11.
