Mortgage Applications Decrease Slightly In Latest MBA Weekly Survey

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending March 14, 2008. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 652.0, a decrease of 2.9 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 671.7 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 2.8 percent compared with the previous week and was down 3.7 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The Refinance Index decreased 4.6 percent to 2335.0 from 2448.2 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 1.0 percent to 365 from 368.8 one week earlier. The Conventional Purchase Index decreased 3.1 percent while the Government Purchase Index (largely FHA) increased 7.7 percent and the Government Refinance Index increased 11.4%. On an unadjusted basis, the Purchase Index decreased 1.0% percent to 406.8 from 410.8 the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Conventional Index decreased 5.3 percent to 850.1 from 898.0 the previous week, and the seasonally adjusted Government Index increased 9.2 percent to 321.7 from 294.5 the previous week.

The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is down 6 percent to 668.4 from 711.1. The four week moving average is up 0.5 percent to 363.8 from 361.9 for the Purchase Index, while this average is down 10.9 percent to 2452.8 from 2752.5 for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 49.7 percent of total applications from 50.6 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 7.9 from 15.5 percent of total applications from the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.98 percent from 6.37 percent, with points decreasing to 0.890 from 1.05 (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 5.24 percent from 5.72 percent, with points decreasing to 0.97 from 1.06 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 6.95 percent from 6.72 percent, with points increasing to 1.64 from 1.27 (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.

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The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) is the national association representing the real estate finance industry, an industry that employs more than 370,000 people in virtually every community in the country. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the association works to ensure the continued strength of the nation's residential and commercial real estate markets; to expand homeownership and extend access to affordable housing to all Americans. MBA promotes fair and ethical lending practices and fosters professional excellence among real estate finance employees through a wide range of educational programs and a variety of publications. Its membership of over 2,400 companies includes all elements of real estate finance: mortgage companies, mortgage brokers, commercial banks, thrifts, Wall Street conduits, life insurance companies and others in the mortgage lending field. For additional information, visit MBA's Web site: www.mortgagebankers.org.