Washington, DC, March 28, 2007--The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending March 23, 2007. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 671, a decrease of 0.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 672.1 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 0.2 percent compared with the previous week and was up 16.6 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.
The Refinance Index decreased 0.5 percent to 2197.7 from 2208.6 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 0.1 percent to 411.1 from 410.6 one week earlier. The seasonally adjusted Conventional Index decreased 0.4 percent to 993.8 from 997.4 the previous week, and the seasonally adjusted Government Index increased 2.4 percent to 132.8 from 129.7 the previous week.
The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is up 1.7 percent to 676.3 from 665.1. The four week moving average is up 0.6 percent to 410.3 from 407.9 for the Purchase Index, while this average is up 2.9 percent to 2238.2 from 2174.6 for the Refinance Index.
The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 45.1 percent of total applications from 45.3 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 20.2 from 20.9 percent of total applications from the previous week.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 6.04 percent from 6.06 percent, with points increasing to 1.33 from 1.3 (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 5.77 from 5.79 percent, with points decreasing to 1.14 from 1.17 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.
The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 5.84 from 5.88 percent, with points decreasing to 0.72 from 0.73 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.
