Mortgage Applications Increase in Latest MBA Weekly Survey

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(News Source: Mortgage Bankers Association)

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) -- The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending January 30, 2009.  The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 795.4, an increase of 8.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 732.1 one week earlier.  On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 28.1 percent compared with the previous week and decreased 26.9 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The Refinance Index increased 15.8 percent to 3906.3 from 3373.9 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 11.2 percent to 261.4 from 294.3 one week earlier.  The seasonally adjusted Conventional Purchase Index decreased 11.3 percent while the Government Purchase Index (largely FHA) decreased 10.9 percent.
 
The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is down 9.2 percent.  The four week moving average is down 4.7 percent for the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index, while this average is down 10.7 percent for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 73.2 percent of total applications from 72.8 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 2.1 percent from 2.4 percent of total applications from the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 5.28 percent from 5.22 percent, with points increasing to 1.12 from 1.05 (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 5.15 percent from 4.98 percent, with points increasing to 1.21 from 1.13 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 6.09 percent from 5.96 percent, with points increasing to 0.07 from 0.06 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

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.

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