by Calculated Risk on 4/19/2006 10:06:00 AM

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reports: Mortgage Application Volume Drops Slightly


Click on graph for larger image.

The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 569.6, a decrease of 1.7 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 579.4 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 1.4 percent compared with the previous week and was down 14.9 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The seasonally-adjusted Purchase Index decreased by 2.5 percent to 407.4 from 417.7 the previous week whereas the Refinance Index decreased by 0.4 percent to 1526.1 from 1532.4 one week earlier.

Mortgage rates increased slightly:

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 6.56 percent from 6.50 percent ...

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 6.00 percent from 5.97 percent ...

Change in mortgage applications from one year ago (from Dow Jones):

Total	-14.9%
Purchase	-12.7%
Refi	-18.4%
Fixed-Rate	-6.2%
ARM	-30.5%

Purchase activity is off 12.7% from last year. This provides further evidence that housing is slowing.