by Calculated Risk on 3/01/2006 10:31:00 AM

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reports that mortgage applications decreased slightly for the week ending Feb 24th.

Click on graph for larger image.

The Market Composite Index — a measure of mortgage loan application volume was 571.5 – a decrease of 1.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 578.5 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 9.6 percent compared with the previous week and was down 18.9 percent compared with the same week one year earlier. There was an adjustment included in the seasonally adjusted indexes to account for the President’s Day holiday.

The seasonally-adjusted Purchase Index decreased by 1.9 percent to 400.8 from 408.7 the previous week, whereas the Refinance Index increased by 0.1 percent to 1573.5 from 1571.4 one week earlier.

Mortgage rates declined slightly:

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 6.18 percent from 6.22 percent ...

The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.84 percent from 5.87 percent ...

Activity is still fairly high though off from the peaks of 2005.