U.S. MBA's Mortgage Applications Index Declined 23% Last Week

Mortgage applications in the U.S.
dropped by the most in more than than four old age as the highest
mortgage rates in two calendar months weakened demand for place purchasing and
refinancing.

The Mortgage Bankers Association's index of applications to
buy a place or refinance a loan drop 23 percentage to 822.8 from
1063.5 a hebdomad earlier. The group's refinancing gage plunged 28
percent, the most in more than than three years, and the purchase
index declined 12 percent.

The last clip the applications gage dropped so much was
the hebdomad ended July 25, 2003, when the index drop 24 percent. Concerns about the deceleration economic system as well as the perception
that place terms will go on to worsen are keeping potential
buyers from buying and may go on to drag down gross sales in
coming months.

''There's really no end in sight to the diminutions we're
seeing,'' in housing, Michael Gregory, a senior economic expert at BMO
Capital Markets in Toronto, said before the report.

The mortgage bankers' refinancing gage decreased to 3533.8
last week, from 4901.5. The purchase index drop to 357.6, the
lowest degree since April 25, 2003, from 403.9.

Applications figs may be overstating activity because
the collapse in subprime loaning is prompting some proprietors and
potential purchasers to register multiple applications to ensure
financing.

Federal Soldier Modesty functionaries expect that housebuilders will
take most of the twelvemonth to work off stock lists of unsold homes
and start contributing to economical growth.

Fed's Outlook

''Further cuts in homebuilding and in related to activities
are likely,'' Federal President Ben S. Bernanke told lawmakers at a
Feb. Fourteen congressional hearing. He also said the cardinal bank
''will enactment in a timely mode as needful to back up growth.''

The National Association of Homebuilders said yesterday
that its detergent builder sentiment index edged up to 20 this calendar month as
companies reported that more than prospective purchasers were touring new
homes.

An addition in people shopping for a house is ''giving us
some hope that prospective purchasers believe it is a better clip to
buy,'' NAHB Head Economist Saint David Seiders said in a Bloomberg
Television interview yesterday.

Today's study showed the share of applications for
refinancing drop to 62 percent.

The norm charge per unit on a 30-year fixed-rate loan rose to 6.09
percent, the peak since the hebdomad ended Dec. 21, the Master in Business said,
from 5.72 percentage the anterior week. At the current rate, monthly
borrowing costs for each $100,000 of a loan would be $605.35.

The norm charge per unit on a 15-year fixed mortgage increased to
5.55 percentage from 5.18 percent. The charge per unit on a one-year
adjustable-rate mortgage held at 5.72 percent.

The Washington-based Mortgage Bankers Association's loan
survey, compiled every hebdomad since 1990, covers about one-half of all
U.S. retail residential mortgage originations.

To reach the newsman on this story:
Courtney Schlisserman in American Capital at