Mortgage Bankers Weekly Update: Mortgage Applications Increase

Market Composite Index: (loan application volume) increased 1.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier.

Refinance Index: increased 1.3 percent from the previous week

Purchase Index: increased 1.5 percent from one week earlier. This third straight weekly increase in the Purchase Index was driven by government purchase applications which increased 3.4 percent from last week, while conventional purchase applications were essentially flat.

Refinance Share of Mortgage Activity: increased 1.3 percent from the previous week.

Arm Share: decreased to 5.4 percent from 5.7 percent of total applications from the previous week.

MBA outlook: (Excerpted from mbaa.org)

We predict that mortgage originations will fall to $1.48 trillion in 2010 from an estimated $2.1 trillion in 2009. Purchase originations will decrease 7 percent to $686 billion, as home prices continue to fall and the boost from the homebuyer tax credits wane. Refinance originations will fall by about 42 percent to $797 billion in 2010. We continue to mark up our refinance origination forecast given that mortgage rates have continued to remain close to historical lows.

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