MBA's Purchase Index for mortgages drops again; Now at lowest level in 12 years

Dennis Norman

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its weekly mortgage applications survey for the week ending November 13, 2009. The report showed the MBA Purchase Index (a measure of the volume of loan applications related to a home purchase) decreased 4.7 percent from the week before making six-consecutive weeks of decreases and bringing the index to it’s lowest level since November 1997.

For the past four weeks the Purchase Index is down 5.8 percent while the Refinance Index is up 1.4 percent during the period.

Homeowners taking advantage of near record-low interest rates and refinancing their existing mortgages continue to dominate the mortgage application activity jumping this wek to 72.9 percent of loan applications for the week up from 71.5 percent the week before.

Interest rates and fees for the week:

• 30 year fixed-rate mortgage interest rates decreased to 4.83 percent, the lowest rate since May of this year, from 4.90 percent the previous week, with fees increasing slightly to 1.17 percent from 1.03 percent on loans that are 80 percent of the value of the home.
• 15 year fixed rate mortgage interest rates decreased slightly to 4.32 percent from 4.33 percent the previous week, with fees decreasing to 1.01 percent from 1.15 percent on loans that are 80 percent of the value of the home.
• One-year ARM interest rates decreased to 6.82 percent from 6.85 percent with fees decreasing to 0.28 percent from 0.29 percent for loans that are 80 percent of the value of the home.

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