WASHINGTON – The number of home-loan applications filed nationwide rose last week compared with a year ago, according to a report today from the Mortgage Bankers Association.
In the week ended Dec. 5, the trade group’s seasonally adjusted Market Composite Index – a measure of overall mortgage loan application volume – was 796.8 points (March 16, 1990 = 100 points). That represented a decline of 7.1 percent from the 857.7 points of the week ended Nov. 28 (after adjustment for the Thanksgiving-shortened work week), but an increase of 99.90 percent from the eight-year low of the week ended Nov. 15 (READ MORE) and a year-over-year increase of 2.2 percent.
The MBA survey, conducted weekly since 1990, covers about half of all U.S. retail home mortgage applications.
Its seasonally adjusted Purchase Index fell 17.4 percent week-over-week to 298.1 points, after rising 38.0 percent the week ended Nov. 28 and 5.3 percent the week before that. Applications to purchase a home using Federal Housing Authority (FHA) and other government-backed loans fell 21.3 percent last week while applications for non-government backed loans fell 15.5 percent, the MBA said.
The Refinance Index dipped 0.9 percent last week to 3,767.3 points, after surging 203.3 percent Thanksgiving week and falling 2.1 percent the week ended Nov. 21. Refinancing was the goal of nearly three-quarters of loan applications last week – 73.7 percent – up from 69.1 percent in the week ended Nov. 28 and 49.3 percent in the week ended Nov. 21, the MBA said.
The share of mortgage applicants who were seeking adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) – rather than conventional fixed-rate loans – fell to 1.1 percent last week from 1.4 percent Thanksgiving week and 3.0 percent of applications filed in the week ended Nov. 21.
The average contract interest rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage dipped to 5.45 percent last week from the previous week’s from 5.47 percent, while the contract interest rate on a 15-year, fixed-rate loan declined to 5.09 percent from the previous 5.13 percent. But the average contract rate on a one-year ARM rose to 6.76 percent from the preceding week’s 6.61-percent average.
Still, by historical standards, “mortgage applications for purchases remain subdued,” Anna Piretti, a senior economist at BNP Paribas in New York, told Bloomberg News. And, she added, “tighter credit standards suggest actual lending remains constrained, weighing on sales.”
The Mortgage Bankers Association is a trade group representing the real estate finance industry. Its 3,000 member companies include mortgage firms, commercial banks, thrifts, life insurance companies and others. Additional information, including the MBA’s Weekly Application Survey, is available at www.MortgageBankers.org.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
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