Mortgage applications drop week-to-week

Mortgage applications filed last week decreased a seasonally adjusted 2.2% compared with the week before, even though mortgage rates improved somewhat, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported on Wednesday.

Applications for the week ended Aug. 28 were up an unadjusted 22.7% from the same week in 2008, the MBA said. The Washington-based MBA's survey covers about half of all U.S. retail residential mortgage applications.

The week-to-week drop marked a downturn from the comparable 7.5% increase in filings for the week ended Aug. 21.

Mortgage applications to purchase home for the latest week were down a seasonally adjusted 1.0%, compared with the week before. Included within those purchase applications, government-insured mortgages, such as those through the Federal Housing Administration, were up a seasonally adjusted 0.5% from the prior week, according to the MBA's survey.

The government-insured share of mortgage purchase applications for August stood at 40.4%, up from 38.3% in July. The increase put government-insured mortgages at the highest proportion seen since February 1991, the MBA said.

Meanwhile, applications to refinance existing home loans were down 3.1% on a week-to-week basis.

Refinancings accounted for 56.5% of all filings last week, unchanged from the prior week. Adjustable-rate mortgages made up 5.6% of all mortgages, down from 6.5%.

Good stats here: refis dropped (in spite of dipping rates); ARMs only make up 5.6% of applications (showing future stability in lending). Will next week or two weeks from now show an increase in applications (as we enter the typically strong post-Labor Day period? We'll see soon. And that will give us a good indication of what the market will do for the rest of the year.

SOURCE: MARKET WATCH

Mortgage applications jump 7.5%

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending August 21, 2009. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 7.5 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 6.3 percent compared with the previous week and 34.1 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The Refinance Index increased 12.7 percent from the previous week, the third increase in the last four weeks. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 1.0 percent from one week earlier, solely boosted by increased demand for government loans. This marks the fourth consecutive weekly gain - the first time this has happened since March, when fixed mortgage rates first dropped and stayed below 5 percent.

The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is up 3.5 percent. The four week moving average is up 1.7 percent for the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index, while this average is up 4.8 percent for the Refinance Index.

SOURCE: REAL ESTATE CHANNEL