Mortgage Applications Increase In Latest MBA Weekly Survey

RISMEDIA, Dec. 13, 2007-The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending December 7, 2007. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 811.8, an increase of 2.5% on a seasonally adjusted basis from 791.8 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 1.4% compared with the previous week and was up 14.2% compared with the same week one year earlier.

The Refinance Index increased 4.3% to 2879.8 from 2761.3 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 1.7% to 472 from 464.3 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Purchase Index decreased 2.3% to 364.8 from 373.5 the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Conventional Index increased 2.8% to 1169.9 from 1138.4 the previous week, and the seasonally adjusted Government Index increased 0.4% to 214.9 from 214.0 the previous week.

The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is up 3.7% to 732.9 from 706.8. The four week moving average is up 2.3% to 440.9 from 431.0 for the Purchase Index, while this average is up 6.0% to 2483.5 from 2342.5 for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 57.6% of total applications from 56.0% the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 9.4 from 11.6% of total applications from the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 6.07% from 5.82%, with points increasing to 1.17 from 1.07 (including the origination fee) for 80% loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans.

The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 5.72% from 5.38%, with points decreasing to 1.01 from 1.12 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 6.31% from 6.28%, with points decreasing to 0.97 from 0.99 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans.

The survey covers approximately 50% of all U.S. retail residential mortgage applications, and has been conducted weekly since 1990. Respondents include mortgage bankers, commercial banks and thrifts. Base period and value for all indexes is March 16, 1990=100.

For more information, visit www.mortgagebankers.org.