Mortgage Applications Increase Slightly in Latest MBA Weekly Survey

RISMEDIA, August 28, 2008-The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) this week released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending August 22, 2008. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 421.6, an increase of 0.5% on a seasonally adjusted basis from 419.3 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 0.9% compared with the previous week and was down 31.2% compared with the same week one year earlier.

The Refinance Index increased 0.3% to 1038.0 from the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 0.6% to 315.9 from one week earlier. The Conventional Purchase Index decreased 0.6% while the Government Purchase Index (largely FHA) increased 3.3%.

The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is up 0.05%. The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Purchase index is up 0.51%, while this average is down 0.85% for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 35.2% of total applications from 34.8% the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 7.9% from 8.0% of total applications from the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 6.44% from 6.47%, with points decreasing to 1.03 from 1.10 (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 5.94% from 5.99%, with points decreasing to 1.13 from 1.18 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 7.15% from 7.07%, with points decreasing to 0.36 from 0.42 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans.

For more information, visit www.mortgagebankers.org.