WASHINGTON (AP) - Home-loan data to be released Thursday will show whether
activity continued to taper off, a week after new mortgages fell by nearly 8
percent.
The Mortgage Bankers Association will report its weekly index of home-loan
application volume at 7 a.m. EST. The index is being released a day late because
of the Jan. 1 holiday. The index fell last week after hitting its highest level
since July 2005 earlier last month.
For the week that ended Dec. 21, the trade group's seasonally adjusted index
of mortgage application volume fell 7.6 percent to 603.8. Refinance volume
dropped by 8.5 percent, while purchase volume sank by 7.8 percent.
Last week, mortgage company Freddie Mac reported that 30-year, fixed-rate
mortgages averaged 6.17 percent, up from 6.14 percent a week earlier and the
highest since the week of Nov. 21, when 30-year rates stood at 6.20 percent.
The mortgage bankers' index, which stood at 100 at its onset in March 1990,
is derived from a survey of major lenders representing about half of the U.S.
mortgages made each week. It does not include loans originated by nonbank
lenders.
The index has fluctuated this year after sinking in June 2006 to 529.6, its
lowest level since 2002. It peaked at 1,856.7 in May 2003.
The mortgage industry's recent woes, which started with rising defaults
among borrowers with weak credit and spread to better-quality loans, have
shuttered dozens of lenders and led others such as Countrywide Financial Corp.
to scale back riskier loan operations.
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