Mortgage Bankers Weekly Update: Mortgage Applications Decrease as Rates Jump

Mortgage Bankers Association for the week of  2/16/2010

Market Composite Index: (loan application volume) a measure of mortgage loan application volume,   decreased 9.5 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier.  On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 7.9 percent compared with the previous week.

Refinance Index:   decreased 11.4 percent from the previous week and is the lowest Refinance Index recorded in the survey since the week ending July 3, 2009.

Purchase Index: decreased 5.9 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 0.9 percent compared with the previous week and was 18.2 percent lower than the same week one year ago.

Refinance Share of Mortgage Activity: decreased to 64.0 percent of total applications from 66.6 percent the previous week. This is the fourth straight week the share has declined.

Arm Share: increased to 6.0 percent from 5.9 percent of total applications from the previous week.

MBA outlook: (Excerpted from mbaa.org)

Mortgage rates remained above 5% last week, up almost a full percentage point from their October lows, and refinance volume continued to drop, said Michael Fratantoni, MBAs Vice President of Research and Economics. Applications for home purchases also declined on a seasonally adjusted basis. Buyers have not returned to the market as rising rates have reduced
affordability, to some extent .

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