Real Estate Mortgage Applications Decrease in Latest MBA Weekly Survey

RISMEDIA, Feb. 21, 2008-The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending February 15, 2008. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 822.8, a decrease of 22.6% on a seasonally adjusted basis from 1063.5 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 21.2% compared with the previous week and was up 33.9% compared with the same week one year earlier.

The Refinance Index decreased 27.9% to 3533.8 from 4901.5 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 11.5% to 357.6 from 403.9 one week earlier. The Conventional Purchase Index decreased 12.3% while the Government Purchase Index (largely FHA) increased 7.2%. On an unadjusted basis, the Purchase Index decreased 7.4% to 377.3 from 407.4 the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Conventional Index decreased 24.2% to 1153.4 from 1522.6 the previous week, and the seasonally adjusted Government Index decreased 8.8% to 271.8 from 297.9 the previous week.

The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is down 3.8% to 1007.0 from 1046.6. The four week moving average is down 5.1% to 382.2 from 402.8 for the Purchase Index, while this average is down 3.3% to 4648.2 from 4809.3 for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 61.7% of total applications from 67.4% the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 12.8 from 9.9% of total applications from the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 6.09% from 5.72%, with points decreasing to 1.10 from 1.15 (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 5.55% from 5.18%, with points unchanged at 1.08 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs remained unchanged at 5.72%, with points increasing to 0.91 from 0.90 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans.

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