Mortgage Applications Decrease in Latest MBA Weekly Survey

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RISMEDIA, Dec. 21, 2007-The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending December 14, 2007. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 653.8, a decrease of 19.5% on a seasonally adjusted basis from 811.8 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 21.3% compared with the previous week and was up 1.7% compared with the same week one year earlier.

The Refinance Index decreased 27.3% to 2093.6 from 2879.8 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 10.6% to 422.2 from 472.0 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Purchase Index decreased 13.1% to 317.1 from 364.8 the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Conventional Index decreased 20.3% to 932.8 from 1169.9 the previous week, and the seasonally adjusted Government Index decreased 12.2% to 188.7 from 214.9 the previous week.

The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is down 1.0% to 725.9 from 732.9. The four week moving average is down 0.1% to 440.4 from 440.9 for the Purchase Index, while this average is down 1.1% to 2456.9 from 2483.5 for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 53.2% of total applications from 57.6% the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 9.9 from 9.4% of total applications from the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 6.18% from 6.07%, with points decreasing to 1.12 from 1.17 (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 5.78% from 5.72%, with points increasing to 1.10 from 1.01 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 6.48% from 6.31%, with points decreasing to 0.95 from 0.97 (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.

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