Mortgage Applications Decrease in Latest MBA Weekly Survey

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending July 27, 2007.  The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 607.1, a decrease of 0.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 609.0 one week earlier.  On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 0.4 percent compared with the previous week and was up 14.2 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The Refinance Index increased 1.8 percent to 1724.1 from 1692.9 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 1.8 percent to 416.6 from 424.2 one week earlier. The seasonally adjusted Conventional Index decreased 0.5 percent to 887.2 from 892.1 the previous week, and the seasonally adjusted Government Index increased 2.2 percent to 139.9 from 136.9 the previous week.

The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is down 0.5 percent to 618.5 from 621.6.  The four week moving average is down 1.2 percent to 435.3 from 440.5 for the Purchase Index, while this average is up 0.5 percent to 1692.8 from 1683.6 for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 39.4 percent of total applications from 38.5 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 22.3 from 21.0 percent of total applications from the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 6.50 percent from 6.59 percent, with points increasing to 1.66 from 1.55 (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 6.20 from 6.24 percent, with points decreasing to 1.30 from 1.43 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 5.73 from 5.62 percent, with points decreasing to 1.12 from 1.13 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

**SPECIAL NOTES**

The survey covers approximately 50 percent of all U.S. retail residential mortgage originations, and has been conducted weekly since 1990.  Respondents include mortgage bankers, commercial banks and thrifts.  Base period and value for all indexes is March 16, 1990=100.

Aleis Stokes                          Carolyn Kemp
(202) 557-2741                       (202) 557-2727
astokes@mortgagebankers.org         ckemp@mortgagebankers.org