Mortgage applications dip in first week of March

WASHINGTON – The number of residential mortgage applications nationwide fell in the first week of March, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s weekly report.

The trade group’s Market Composite Index – a measure of mortgage loan application volume – fell to a seasonally adjusted 671.1 points in the week ended March 7, a decrease of 1.9 percent from the week before and 3.4 percent from the same week in 2007. In the week ended Feb. 29, the index had surged 3.0 percent to 684.9 points, in a temporary rise that followed three straight weeks of declining applications. (READ MORE)

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The MBA’s seasonally adjusted Purchase Index rose 1.6 percent to 368.8 points in the week ended March 7, after rising 1.4 percent the week before. Meanwhile, the group’s seasonally adjusted Refinance Index fell 4.7 percent to 2,448.2 points after rising 4.5 percent the week before.

Refinancing attempts declined to 50.6 percent of total mortgage activity in the latest period, down from 52.4 percent the week ended Feb. 29. At the same time, adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) fell to 15.5 percent of activity from the previous week’s 17.3 percent.

The average contract interest rate for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage rose to 6.37 percent in the week ended March 7, from the previous week’s 5.98 percent, while the average rate for one-year ARMs increased to 6.72 percent from the previous week’s 5.83 percent.

The pre-credit-crunch proliferation of low-documentation loans was a key contributor to mortgage fraud in 2007, Mortgage Asset Research Institute (MARI), a ChoicePoint Asset company, wrote in a separate report. (READ MORE)

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.