by Calculated Risk on 7/06/2006 10:55:00 AM

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reports: Application Volumes Increase

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The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 561.0, an increase of 5.9 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 529.6 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 5.9 percent compared with the previous week but was down 33.3 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The seasonally-adjusted Purchase Index increased by 6.5 percent to 414.2 from 389.0 the previous week and the Refinance Index increased by 5.0 percent to 1423.9 from 1356.0 one week earlier.

Mortgage rates were mixed:

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 6.80 percent from 6.86 percent ...

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 6.39 percent from 6.36 percent ...

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

Total	-33.3%
Purchase	-20.1%
Refi	-48.9%
Fixed-Rate	-32.1%
ARM	-35.8%

Purchase activity is off 20.1% compared to the same week last year. Despite the slight increase in activity this week, the MBA Purchase Index is indicating that the housing market is continuing to slow compared to 2005.