Mortgage applications crashes amid coronavirus outbreak

Mortgage applications decreased 29.4 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending March 20, 2020.

The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 29.4 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 29 percent compared with the previous week. The Refinance Index decreased 34 percent from the previous week and was 195 percent higher than the same week one year ago. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 15 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 14 percent compared with the previous week and was 11 percent lower than the same week one year ago.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 69.3 percent of total applications from 74.5 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 6.1 percent of total applications.

The FHA share of total applications increased to 8.4 percent from 7.3 percent the week prior. The VA share of total applications decreased to 12.5 percent from 14.5 percent the week prior. The USDA share of total applications remained unchanged from 0.4 percent the week prior.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($510,400 or less) increased to 3.82 percent from 3.74 percent, with points decreasing to 0.35 from 0.37 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value ratio (LTV) loans. The effective rate increased from last week.