Mortgage Applications Increase in Latest MBA Weekly Survey

RISMEDIA, April 10, 2008-The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending April 4, 2008. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 725.6, an increase of 5.4% on a seasonally adjusted basis from 688.3 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 5.7% compared with the previous week and was up 10.9% compared with the same week one year earlier.

The Refinance Index increased 3.4% to 2724.7 from 2636.0 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 8.1% to 384.7 from 356.0 one week earlier. The Conventional Purchase Index increased 6.1% while the Government Purchase Index (largely FHA) increased 15.2%. On an unadjusted basis, the Conventional Purchase Index increased 6.3% to 561.1 from 527.7 the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Conventional Index increased 3.8% to 935.8 from 901.8 the previous week, and the seasonally adjusted Government Index increased 12.9% to 375.2 from 332.4 the previous week.

The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is up 1.8% to 758.0 from 744.5. The four week moving average is up 1.1% to 377.4 from 373.4 for the Purchase Index, while this average is up 2.4% to 2987.8 from 2918.6 for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 52.2% of total applications from 53.4% the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 6.5 from 5.4% of total applications from the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 5.78% from 5.75%, with points decreasing to 1.11 from 1.19 (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 5.39% from 5.27%, with points decreasing to 1.11 from 1.13 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 7.06% from 7.00%, with points increasing to 1.46 from 1.39 (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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