MBA: Purchase Applications Increase

According to the Mortgage Bankers Association¹s Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending February 1, 2008, the Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 1086.6, an increase of 3% on a seasonally adjusted basis from 1054.9 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 4.4% compared with the previous week and was up 73.2% compared with the same week one year earlier. The Refinance Index decreased 1% to 5054 from 5103.6 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 12% to 405.3 from 362 one week earlier. The Conventional Purchase Index increased 10.4% while the Government Purchase Index increased 20.9%. On an unadjusted basis, the Purchase Index increased 19.1% to 386.5 from 324.4 the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Conventional Index increased 1% to 1552.6 from 1537.6 the previous week, and the seasonally adjusted Government Index increased 23.7% to 309.5 from 250.2 the previous week. According to the MBA, the average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 5.61% from 5.6%, with points decreasing to 0.98 from 1.06 (including the origination fee) for 80% loan-to-value ratio loans. The full results of the survey can be found online at http://www.mortgagebankers.org.