MBA: Mortgage Apps Up Slightly Last Week

Washington, DC, July 18, 2007--The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending July 13, 2007.  The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 631.6, an increase of 0.9% on a seasonally adjusted basis from 626.2 one week earlier.  On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 25.9 percent compared with the previous week, which included the Independence Day holiday, and was up 15.7% compared with the same week one year earlier.

The Refinance Index increased 4.9% to 1717.4 from 1636.9 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 1.6% to 446.5 from 453.9 one week earlier. The seasonally adjusted Conventional Index increased 1.0 percent to 927.2 from 918.2 the previous week, and the seasonally adjusted Government Index decreased 0.5% to 138.6 from 139.3 the previous week.

The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is down 0.5% to 624.0 from 627.0.  The four week moving average is down 0.2% to 441.6 from 442.8 for the Purchase Index, while this average is down 0.9% to 1693.3 from 1708.1 for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 37.7% of total applications from 36.2% the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 21.0 from 20.4% of total applications from the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 6.61% from 6.65% with points increasing to 1.60 from 1.52 (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 6.29 from 6.31%, with points decreasing to 1.33 from 1.41 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans.