WASHINGTON, D.C. (February 20, 2008) – The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending February 15, 2008. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 822.8, a decrease of 22.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 1063.5 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 21.2 percent compared with the previous week and was up 33.9 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.The Refinance Index decreased 27.9 percent to 3533.8 from 4901.5 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 11.5 percent to 357.6 from 403.9 one week earlier. The Conventional Purchase Index decreased 12.3 percent while the Government Purchase Index (largely FHA) increased 7.2 percent. On an unadjusted basis, the Purchase Index decreased 7.4 percent to 377.3 from 407.4 the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Conventional Index decreased 24.2 percent to 1153.4 from 1522.6 the previous week, and the seasonally adjusted Government Index decreased 8.8 percent to 271.8 from 297.9 the previous week.
The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is down 3.8 percent to 1007.0 from 1046.6. The four week moving average is down 5.1 percent to 382.2 from 402.8 for the Purchase Index, while this average is down 3.3 percent to 4648.2 from 4809.3 for the Refinance Index.
The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 61.7 percent of total applications from 67.4 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 12.8 from 9.9 percent of total applications from the previous week.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 6.09 percent from 5.72 percent, with points decreasing to 1.10 from 1.15 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans.
The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 5.55 percent from 5.18 percent, with points unchanged at 1.08 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.
The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs remained unchanged at 5.72 percent, with points increasing to 0.91 from 0.90 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.
**SPECIAL NOTES**
The survey covers approximately 50 percent 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.
###
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) is the national association representing the real estate finance industry, an industry that employs more than 500,000 people in virtually every community in the country. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the association works to ensure the continued strength of the nation’s residential and commercial real estate markets; to expand homeownership and extend access to affordable housing to all Americans. MBA promotes fair and ethical lending practices and fosters professional excellence among real estate finance employees through a wide range of educational programs and a variety of publications. Its membership of over 3,000 companies includes all elements of real estate finance: mortgage companies, mortgage brokers, commercial banks, thrifts, Wall Street conduits, life insurance companies and others in the mortgage lending field. For additional information, visit MBA’s Web site: www.mortgagebankers.org.
