MBA: Mortgage Applications Up in Latest Survey

Washington, DC, February 28, 2007--The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending February 23, 2007.  This week’s results include an adjustment to account for the Presidents Day holiday. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 626.1, an increase of 3.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 606.6 one week earlier.  On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 5.4 percent compared with the previous week and was up 8.8 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The Refinance Index increased 1.2 percent to 1943.5 from 1921.1 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 5.2 percent to 401.3 from 381.4 one week earlier. The seasonally adjusted Conventional Index increased 2.3 percent to 928.9 from 908.2 the previous week, and the seasonally adjusted Government Index increased 17 percent to 121.3 from 103.7 the previous week.

The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is down 0.2 percent to 625.6 from 626.9.  The four week moving average is down 0.4 percent to 397 from 398.7 for the Purchase Index, while this average is up slightly to 1959.9 from 1959.1 for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 43.2 percent of total applications from 44.9 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 21.1 from 21.2 percent of total applications from the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 6.16 percent from 6.19 percent, with points increasing to 1.05 from 0.88 (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 5.84 from 5.88 percent, with points increasing to 1.19 from 1.03 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.