Market Composite Index: (loan application volume) decreased 9.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. This is the third lowest Market Index recorded in the survey since the end of June 2009.

Refinance Index: decreased 9.0 percent from the previous week, marking the index’s fifth consecutive decline

Purchase Index: decreased 10.0 percent compared with the previous week and was 17.5 percent lower than the same week one year ago. The decline in purchase applications was driven by government purchase applications, which decreased 19.1 percent from last week, compared to a decrease of 2.0 percent in conventional purchase applications.

Refinance Share of Mortgage Activity: increased to 58.9 percent of total applications from 58.7 percent the previous week.
increased to 6.3 percent from 6.2 percent of total applications from the previous week.

Arm Share: increased to 6.2 percent from 5.2 percent of total applications from the previous week.

MBA outlook: (Excerpted from mbaa.org)

Economic growth and a recovering job market are good news for housing, but we certainly have not seen any significant improvement in housing activity to date. Existing home sales declined in February, and new home sales actually reached a new record low that month. Additionally, the number of existing homes on the market increased, as sellers began to list their properties in anticipation of the spring. Rising inventories on top of weak demand continues to put pressure on prices, with most measures showing either declines or weak gains over the winter.

We predict that mortgage originations will fall by about 38 percent to $1.3 trillion in 2010 from an estimated $2.1 trillion in 2009. Purchase originations will fall by around 2 percent to $726 billion, as home prices stabilize, and home sales increase. Refinance originations will fall by about 126 percent to $604 billion in 2010 as mortgage rates are expected to rise through the year.

Related Articles

FHA Financing Now Available For REO Properties


Commercial Property: Money Becoming Available


Good News! MBAA New Forebearance Program