Mortgage Applications Increase in Latest MBA Weekly Survey

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RISMEDIA, May 8, 2008-This week, in its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending May 2, 2008, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released that the Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 655.4, an increase of 15.6% on a seasonally adjusted basis from 567.0 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 15.9% compared with the previous week and was down 4.4% compared with the same week one year earlier.

The Refinance Index increased 19.3% to 2273.8 from 1905.2 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 12.1% to 381.3 from 340.1 one week earlier. The Conventional Purchase Index increased 11.7% while the Government Purchase Index (largely FHA) increased 13.2%.

The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is down 2.6% to 650.8 from 668.4. The four week moving average is down 0.2% to 365.1 from 365.9 for the Purchase Index, while this average is down 4.6% to 2332.8 from 2445.6 for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 47.1% of total applications from 45.7% the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 6.8 from 5.9% of total applications from the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.91% from 6.01%, with points decreasing to 1.12 from 1.26 (including the origination fee) for 80% loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans.

The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.49% from 5.53%, with points decreasing to 1.07 from 1.24 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 6.77% from 6.86%, with points decreasing to 1.35 from 1.40 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans.

For more information, visit www.mortgagebankers.org.

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