WASHINGTON, D.C., November 21, 2007 — The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending November 16, 2007. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 681.7, a decrease of 3.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 707.3 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 5.2 percent compared with the previous week and was up 9.8 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.
The Refinance Index decreased 5.0 percent to 2199.9 from 2315.7 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 2.0 percent to 424.1 from 432.6 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Purchase Index decreased 5.5 percent to 373.7 from 395.4 the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Conventional Index decreased 3.9 percent to 977.4 from 1017.0 the previous week, and the seasonally adjusted Government Index decreased 1.1 percent to 188.7 from 190.8 the previous week.
The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is up 0.9 percent to 685.3 from 679.0. The four week moving average is up 0.5 percent to 420.6 from 418.5 for the Purchase Index, while this average is up 1.6 percent to 2235.2 from 2200.0 for the Refinance Index.
The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 50.3 percent of total applications from 50.2 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 15.8 from 15.5 percent of total applications from the previous week.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 6.18 percent from 6.19 percent, with points decreasing to 1.01 from 1.16 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans.
The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.71 from 5.77 percent, with points decreasing to 1.12 from 1.13 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.
The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs remained unchanged at 5.98 percent, with points decreasing to 0.89 from 0.93 (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.
