Mortgage Applications Increase as Refis Jump In Latest MBA Weekly Survey

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending November 9, 2007.  The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 707.3, an increase of 5.5 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 670.6 one week earlier.  On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 4.2 percent compared with the previous week and was up 21.8 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The Refinance Index increased 6.4 percent to 2315.7 from 2176.1 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 4.8 percent to 432.6 from 412.7 one week earlier.  On an unadjusted basis, the Purchase Index increased 2.1 percent to 395.4 from 387.3 the previous week.  The seasonally adjusted Conventional Index increased 5.9 percent to 1017.0 from 960.0 the previous week, and the seasonally adjusted Government Index increased 1.5 percent to 190.8 from 188.0 the previous week.

The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is up 1.9 percent to 679.0 from 666.3.  The four week moving average is up 0.2 percent to 418.5 from 417.6 for the Purchase Index, while this average is up 4.0 percent to 2200.0 from 2116.3 for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 50.2 percent of total applications from 49.1 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 15.5 from 14.2 percent of total applications from the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 6.19 percent from 6.16 percent, with points increasing to 1.16 from 1.08 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans.

The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages remained unchanged at 5.77 percent, with points increasing to 1.13 from 1.10 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 5.98 percent from 5.94 percent, with points increasing to 0.93 from 0.90 (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.

John Mechem                                       Carolyn Kemp
(202) 557-2924                                       (202) 557-2727
jmechem@mortgagebankers.org       ckemp@mortgagebankers.org