WASHINGTON, D.C., October 31, 2007 — The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending October 26, 2007. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 681.7, an increase of 3.8 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 656.5 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 3.6 percent compared with the previous week and was up 19.5 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.
The Refinance Index increased 9.2 percent to 2249.0 from 2059.3 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 0.7 percent to 412.9 from 415.9 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Purchase Index decreased 1.3 percent to 393.5 from 398.6 the previous week. The Refinance Index is at its highest level since the week ending March 9, 2007. The seasonally adjusted Conventional Index increased 4.1 percent to 982.2 from 943.2 the previous week, and the seasonally adjusted Government Index increased 1.2 percent to 180.7 from 178.5 the previous week.
The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is up 1.7 percent to 661.6 from 650.4. The four week moving average is up 0.1 percent to 419.5 from 419.2 for the Purchase Index, while this average is up 3.7 percent to 2073.1 from 1998.4 for the Refinance Index.
The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 49.6 percent of total applications from 47.0 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 14.7 from 14.2 percent of total applications from the previous week.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 6.15 percent from 6.21 percent, with points decreasing to 1.05 from 1.13 (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 5.79 from 5.86 percent, with points increasing to 1.10 from 1.06 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.
The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 5.93 from 6.10 percent, with points increasing to 0.93 from 0.92 (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.
