by Calculated Risk on 7/19/2006 10:42:00 AM

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reports: Mortgage Application Volume Declines

Click on graph for larger image.

The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 540.8, a decrease of 4.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 566.8 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 36.4 percent compared with the previous week but was down 31.3 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The seasonally-adjusted Purchase Index decreased by 6.2 percent to 398.5 from 425.0 the previous week and the Refinance Index decreased by 1.6 percent to 1377.6 from 1400.5 one week earlier.

Mortgage rates decreased:

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 6.73 percent from 6.81 percent...

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 6.28 percent from 6.41 percent ...

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

Total	-31.3%
Purchase	-17.8%
Refi	-47.4%
Fixed-Rate	-31.8%
ARM	-30.0%

Purchase activity is off 17.8% compared to the same week last year. The MBA purchase index has been fairly flat for several months. I expect another drop in the seasonally adjusted purchase activity in the coming months.