Mortgage Apps Down 5.5% Last Week

Washington, DC, August 22, 2007--The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending August 17 showed a decrease of 5.5% on a seasonally adjusted basis. 

On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 6.5% compared with the previous week and was up 14.2 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The Refinance Index decreased 6.4% the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 5%.  On an unadjusted basis, the Purchase Index decreased 6.6%.

The seasonally adjusted Conventional Index decreased 5.7% , and the seasonally adjusted Government Index decreased 4.4%.

“Given the current turmoil in the mortgage market, week-to-week changes in the purchase applications index should be treated with a certain degree of caution,"said Jay Brinkmann, MBA’s Vice President of Research and Economics.

"For example, the sudden exit of a major originator several weeks ago may have led to a bump up in applications over the last two weeks as those borrowers caught in the shutdown reapplied for mortgages at other institutions.  The drop in applications we see here may be an indication that those borrowers have now been taken care of.”

The refinance share of mortgage activity remained unchanged at 39.9% of total applications. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 18.6% from 21% of total applications from the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 6.49% from 6.45%, with points decreasing to 1.48 from 1.54 (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 6.2% from 6.19%, with points decreasing to 1.10 from 1.16 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.