Mortgage Apps Inch Up Last Week

Washington, DC, October 17, 2007—Mortgage applications rose slightly the week ending October 12, according to the weekly Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) survey.

 

The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 656.3, an increase of 0.7% on a seasonally adjusted basis from 652.0 one week earlier.  On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 9.3% compared with the previous week and was up 0.7% compared with the same week one year earlier.

 

The Refinance Index decreased 1.1% from  the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 2.1%.  On an unadjusted basis, the Purchase Index decreased 7.9%. The seasonally adjusted Conventional Index increased 0.3%, and the seasonally adjusted Government Index increased 3.9%.

 

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 45.3% of total applications from 46.2% the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 13.5% from 13.6% of total applications from the previous week.

 

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages remained unchanged at 6.40%, with points increasing to 1.04 from 1.00 (including the origination fee) for 80% loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans.

 

The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 6.09% from 6.03%, with points decreasing to 1.03 from 1.12 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans.

 

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 6.17% from 6.15%, with points increasing to 0.94 from 0.92 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans.