by Calculated Risk on 6/14/2006 08:44:00 AM

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reports: Mortgage Applications Increase by 7 Percent in Latest Survey

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The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 571.9, an increase of 7 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 534.4 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 17.9 percent compared with the previous week but was down 34.3 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The seasonally-adjusted Purchase Index increased by 4.8 percent to 414.6 from 395.6 the previous week and the Refinance Index increased by 10.6 percent to 1499.4 from 1356.0 one week earlier.

Mortgage rates increased slightly:

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 6.61 percent from 6.60 percent ...

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 6.09 percent from 6.05 percent ...

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

Total	-34.3%
Purchase	-21.1%
Refi	-49.5%
Fixed-Rate	-34.1%
ARM	-34.6%

Although mortgage activity picked up slightly this week, Purchase activity is off over 20% from 2005.