Residential Real Estate News
Mortgage Applications Fall In Latest MBA Weekly Survey
(News Source: Mortgage Bankers Assoication)
Washington, D.C. -- The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending January 23, 2009. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 732.1, a decrease of 38.8 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 1195.3 one week earlier. This week's results included an adjustment to account for the shortened week due to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 46.5 percent compared with the previous week and 40.4 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.
The Refinance Index decreased 48 percent to 3373.9 from 6491.8 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 2.9 percent to 294.3 from 303.1 one week earlier. The Conventional Purchase Index decreased 7.8 percent while the Government Purchase Index (largely FHA) increased 8.8 percent.
The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is down 10.5 percent. The four week moving average is down 2.1 percent for the Purchase Index, while this average is down 12.7 percent for the Refinance Index.
The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 72.8 percent of total applications from 83.3 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 2.4 from 1.5 percent of total applications from the previous week.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.22 percent from 5.24 percent, with points decreasing to 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 decreased to 4.98 percent from 4.99 percent, with points decreasing to 1.13 from 1.20 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.
The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 5.96 percent from 5.89 percent, with points decreasing to 0.06 from 0.07 (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.
