Mortgage Applications Decrease In Latest MBA Weekly Survey

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending December 14, 2007. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 653.8, a decrease of 19.5 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 811.8 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 21.3 percent compared with the previous week and was up 1.7 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The Refinance Index decreased 27.3 percent to 2093.6 from 2879.8 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 10.6 percent to 422.2 from 472.0 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Purchase Index decreased 13.1 percent to 317.1 from 364.8 the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Conventional Index decreased 20.3 percent to 932.8 from 1169.9 the previous week, and the seasonally adjusted Government Index decreased 12.2 percent to 188.7 from 214.9 the previous week.

The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is down 1.0 percent to 725.9 from 732.9. The four week moving average is down 0.1 percent to 440.4 from 440.9 for the Purchase Index, while this average is down 1.1 percent to 2456.9 from 2483.5 for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 53.2 percent of total applications from 57.6 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 9.9 from 9.4 percent of total applications from the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 6.18 percent from 6.07 percent, with points decreasing to 1.12 from 1.17 (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 5.78 percent from 5.72 percent, with points increasing to 1.10 from 1.01 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 6.48 percent from 6.31 percent, with points decreasing to 0.95 from 0.97 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

**SPECIAL NOTES**

The survey covers approximately 50 percent of all U.S. retail residential mortgage applications, 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