Mortgage Applications Decrease from Thanksgiving Week

RISMEDIA, Dec. 11, 2008-The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending December 5, 2008. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 796.8, a decrease of 7.1% on a seasonally adjusted basis from 857.7 one week earlier.

On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 32.7% compared with the previous week and was up 2.2% compared with the same week one year earlier. Most categories of the survey declined from the previous week’s results, which were adjusted to account for the shortened week due to the Thanksgiving holiday.

The Refinance Index decreased 0.9% to 3767.3 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 17.4% to 298.1 from one week earlier. The Conventional Purchase Index decreased 15.5% while the Government Purchase Index (largely FHA) decreased 21.3%.

The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is up 17.8%. The four week moving average is up 1.2% for the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index, while this average is up 33.2% for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 73.7% of total applications from 69.1% the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 1.1% from 1.4% of total applications from the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.45% from 5.47%, with points increasing to 1.23 from 1.16 (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 5.09% from 5.13%, with points decreasing to 1.26 from 1.28 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 6.76% from 6.61%, with points decreasing to 0.26 from 0.52 (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.