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Strategies & Market Trends : The Epic American Credit and Bond Bubble Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: mishedlo who wrote (10289)	3/17/2004 7:46:30 AM
From: russwinter	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110194

I've been posting at end of month, in advance of the monthly employment report. Another monster mortgage boom brewing, borrow, spend, borrow, spend, use up that last oz of copper, get those gasoline prices up, etc, go team! Lots of gambling too: ARMS. Jobs? Wages? Who cares, do they even check?.: WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 17, 2004)—The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending March 12. The Market Composite Index of mortgage loan applications-a measure of mortgage loan applications for purchases and refinancings-increased by 25.6 percent to 1117.1 on a seasonally adjusted basis from 889.1 one week earlier. This is the highest level since July 2003. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased by 24.8 percent compared with last week and was down 31.9 percent compared with the same week one year earlier. "We have been expecting a sharp up tick in refinance applications as borrowers became more aware of the low rates now available, whether through ads by lenders, from direct solicitations or from stories in the news media," said Jay Brinkmann, MBA's vice president of research and economics. "Keep in mind, however, that even with this surge in refinance applications, the share of applications for adjustable rate mortgages is staying the same at almost 28 percent of applications and over 42 percent of the dollar volume. This means that a sizable percentage of these refinance applications are for adjustable rate loans." The MBA seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased by 5.6 percent to 452.4 from 428.6 the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Refinance Index increased by 39.7 percent to 4983.7 from 3567.6 one week earlier. Other seasonally adjusted index activity included the Conventional Index, which increased 27.6 percent to 1632.4 from 1278.9 the previous week. The Government Index increased 7.9 percent to 257.3 from 238.5 the previous week. The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 62.8 percent of total applications from 56.1 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 27.9 percent of total applications from 28.1 percent the previous week. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 5.37 percent from 5.34 percent from one week earlier, with points decreasing to 1.26 from 1.35 the previous week (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans. The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 4.65 percent from 4.62 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 1.45 from 1.18 the previous week (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 3.27 percent from 3.20 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 0.98 from 0.96 the previous week (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.