Survey: Purchase Applications Increase

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RISMEDIA, Feb. 7, 2008-The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending February 1, 2008. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 1086.6, an increase of 3.0% on a seasonally adjusted basis from 1054.9 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 4.4% compared with the previous week and was up 73.2% compared with the same week one year earlier.

The Refinance Index decreased 1.0% to 5054.0 from 5103.6 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 12.0% to 405.3 from 362.0 one week earlier. The Conventional Purchase Index increased 10.4% while the Government Purchase Index (largely FHA) increased 20.9%. On an unadjusted basis, the Purchase Index increased 19.1% to 386.5 from 324.4 the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Conventional Index increased 1.0% to 1552.6 from 1537.6 the previous week, and the seasonally adjusted Government Index increased 23.7% to 309.5 from 250.2 the previous week.

The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is up 10.4% to 1007.4 from 912.2. The four week moving average is down 0.5% to 417.1 from 419.3 for the Purchase Index, while this average is up 16.7% to 4477.8 from 3837.9 for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 69.2% of total applications from 73.0% the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 8.8 from 8.6% of total applications from the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 5.61% from 5.60%, with points decreasing to 0.98 from 1.06 (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 5.09% from 5.04%, with points decreasing to 0.92 from 1.12 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 5.62% from 5.70%, with points remaining unchanged at 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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