RISMEDIA, February 26, 2009-The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending February 20, 2009. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 743.5, a decrease of 15.1% on a seasonally adjusted basis from 875.3 one week earlier. This week’s results included an adjustment to account for the shortened week due to the Presidents’ Day holiday. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 22.6% compared with the previous week and increased 9.8% compared with the same week one year earlier.
The Refinance Index decreased 19.1% to 3618.0 from 4472.9 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 2.6% to 250.5 from 257.3 one week earlier. The Conventional Purchase Index decreased 4.4% while the Government Purchase Index (largely FHA) increased 0.8%.
The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is up 0.4%. The four week moving average is down 4.2% for the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index, while this average is up 1.7% for the Refinance Index.
The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 69.7% of total applications from 74.2% the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 1.9% from 1.7% of total applications from the previous week.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 5.07% from 4.99%, with points decreasing to 1.25 from 1.37 (including the origination fee) for 80% loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans.
The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 4.71% from 4.66%, with points decreasing to 1.12 from 1.22 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans.
The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 6.13% from 6.10%, with points decreasing to 0.21 from 0.23 (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.
