WASHINGTON – The number of residential mortgage applications filed nationwide edged up in the final days of February, ending a three-week decline, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s weekly report.
The trade group’s Market Composite Index – a measure of mortgage loan application volume – rose to a seasonally adjusted 684.9 points in the week ended Feb. 29, an increase of 3.0 percent from the previous week’s 665.1 points, after falling 22.6 percent in the week ended Feb. 22. Compared with the same week in 2007, the application rate rose 1.1 percent.
The MBA’s seasonally adjusted Purchase Index rose 1.4 percent last week to 363.1 points after falling 11.5 percent the week ended Feb. 22. Meanwhile, the group’s seasonally adjusted Refinance Index rose 4.5 percent to 2,569.0 points, after falling 27.9 percent the week before.
Refinancing attempts edged up to 52.4 percent percent of total mortgage applications in the week ended Feb. 29, from 52.0 percent the week before, as interest rates began to creep back down. Meanwhile, adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) increased to 17.3 percent of last week’s activity from the previous week’s 15.0 percent.
The average contract interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to 5.98 percent from last week from the previous week’s 6.27 percent, the MBA said. The average rate for one-year ARMs fell to 5.26 percent from the previous week’s 5.77 percent.
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.
