Year started with the significant increase in new mortgage applications due to low interest rates. As declared by The Mortgage Bankers Association, loan applications increased more than 30% from last week of 2007. Applications for refinancing increased as well, whose share in total number of applications rose from around 50 to 57%. As expected, number of loans with adjustable rates has dropped and is around 9% of all mortgage applications.
Another important aspect, as determined by this weekly mortgage application survey prepared by The Mortgage Bankers Association, the average interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgage decreased from around 6% to 7.73%. The rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgage decreased by almost a half percent to around 5.2%.