RISMEDIA, February 19, 2009-The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending February 13, 2009. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 875.3, an increase of 45.7% on a seasonally adjusted basis from 600.6 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 47.7% compared with the previous week and 5.2% compared with the same week one year earlier.
The Refinance Index increased 64.3% to 4472.9 from 2722.7 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 9.1% to 257.3 from 235.9 one week earlier. The Conventional Purchase Index increased 10.9% while the Government Purchase Index (largely FHA) increased 5.5%.
The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is down 9.6%. The four week moving average is down 4.2% for the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index, while this average is down 12.2% for the Refinance Index.
The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 74.2% of total applications from 66.7% the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 1.7% from 2.5% of total applications from the previous week.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 4.99% from 5.19%, with points increasing to 1.37 from 1.20 (including the origination fee) for 80% loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans.
The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 4.66% from 5.00%, with points increasing to 1.22 from 1.21 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans.
The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 6.10% from 6.22%, with points increasing to 0.23 from 0.22 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans.
The survey covers approximately 50% 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.
For more information, visit www.mortgagebankers.org.
