Press Release - Weekly Application Survey

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending August 3, 2007. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 656.5, an increase of 8.1 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 607.1 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 7.7 percent compared with the previous week and was up 18.0 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.
The Refinance Index increased 9.1 percent to 1881.1 from 1724.1 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 7.4 percent to 447.4 from 416.6 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Purchase Index increased 6.8 percent to 486.9 from 455.7 the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Conventional Index increased 8.0 percent to 958.5 from 887.2 the previous week, and the seasonally adjusted Government Index increased 9.3 percent to 152.9 from 139.9 the previous week. The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is up 1.2 percent to 626.0 from 618.5. The four week moving average is down 0.4 percent to 433.7 from 435.3 for the Purchase Index, while this average is up 3.6 percent to 1753.9 from 1692.8 for the Refinance Index.
The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 39.9 percent of total applications from 39.4 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 22.5 from 22.3 percent of total applications from the previous week.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 6.41 percent from 6.50 percent, with points decreasing to 1.62 from 1.66 (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 6.16 from 6.20 percent, with points decreasing to 1.18 from 1.30 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.
The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 5.69 from 5.73 percent, with points decreasing to 1.09 from 1.12 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.
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