Mortgage Applications Decrease In Latest MBA Weekly Survey

November 28, 2007

WASHINGTON, D.C., November 28, 2007 The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending November 23, 2007. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 652.5, a decrease of 4.3 percent on a seasonally and holiday adjusted basis from 681.7 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 25.5 percent compared with the previous week reflecting the Thanksgiving holiday on November 22 and was up 24.6 percent compared with the same week one year earlier. The Refinance Index decreased 15.3 percent to 1862.9 from 2199.9 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 6.1 percent to 450.1 from 424.1 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Purchase Index decreased 18.7 percent to 303.8 from 373.7 the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Conventional Index decreased 3.4 percent to 944.4 from 977.4 the previous week, and the seasonally adjusted Government Index decreased 12.2 percent to 165.7 from 188.7 the previous week.

The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is down 1.1 percent to 678.0 from 685.3. The four week moving average is up 2.2 percent to 429.9 from 420.6 for the Purchase Index, while this average is down 4.3 percent to 2138.6 from 2235.2 for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 45.8 percent of total applications from 50.3 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 14.6 from 15.8 percent of total applications from the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 6.09 percent from 6.18 percent, with points increasing to 1.07 from 1.01 (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 5.69 percent from 5.71 percent, with points increasing to 1.13 from 1.12 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 6.24 percent from 5.98 percent, with points increasing to 0.96 from 0.89 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.