MBA: Mortgage Applications Up in Latest Survey

Washington, DC, May 23, 2007--The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending May 18, 2007.  The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 686.2, an increase of 1.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 675.5 one week earlier. 

On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 1.4 percent compared with the previous week and was up 23 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The Refinance Index increased 1.9 percent to 2154.7 from 2115.5 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 1.3 percent to 438.1 from 432.3 one week earlier. The seasonally adjusted Conventional Index increased 1.8 percent to 1015.4 from 997.6 the previous week, and the seasonally adjusted Government Index decreased 0.9 percent to 137.3 from 138.6 the previous week.

The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is up 1.2 percent to 674.9 from 666.7.  The four week moving average is up 1.6 percent to 434 from 427.2 for the Purchase Index, while this average is up 0.9 percent to 2100.3 from 2082 for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 42.3 percent of total applications from 42.1 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 18.1 from 17.4 percent of total applications from the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 6.23 percent from 6.13 percent, with points increasing to 1.53 from 1.47 (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 5.96 from 5.81 percent, with points decreasing to 1.24 from 1.35 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.