Mortgage Apps Off in Latest Survey

Washington, DC, September 26, 2007--Mortgage applications were off 2.8% in the weekly Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) survey.

The seasonally adjusted Refinance Index increased 3.3% and the Purchase Index decreased 7.3%.

The seasonally adjusted Conventional Index decreased 3.2 % to seasonally adjusted Government Index increased 0.6%.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 46.4% of total applications from 43.5% the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 12.2 from 12.6% of total applications from the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 6.38%  from 6.29% with points increasing to 1.15 from 1.02 (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 6.06 from 5.99% with points increasing to 1.12 from 1.09 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 6.09 from 6.39%, with points decreasing to 0.93 from 0.95 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans.