Mortgage Applications Increase Slightly in Latest MBA Weekly Survey

RISMEDIA, Oct. 9, 2008-The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending October 3, 2008. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 465.5, an increase of 2.2% on a seasonally adjusted basis from 455.4 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 2.2% compared with the previous week and was down 28.6% compared with the same week one year earlier.

The Refinance Index increased 0.9% to 1345.8 from the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 3.2% to 314.5 from one week earlier. The Conventional Purchase Index increased 0.7% while the Government Purchase Index (largely FHA) increased 9.9%.

The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is down 1.4%. The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index is down 4.1%, while this average is up 1.8% for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 43.4% of total applications from 44.0% the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 2.3% from 2.5% of total applications from the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.99% from 6.07%, with points decreasing to 1.09 from 1.12 (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 5.71% from 5.82%, with points increasing to 1.16 from 1.11 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs remained unchanged at 6.60%, with points increasing to 0.37 from 0.33 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans.

Note: Data for government applications were revised from the first week of June, 2008 through the last week of September 2008. As a result, some historical series were revised.

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.