by Calculated Risk on 7/26/2006 09:14:00 AM

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

Click on graph for larger image.

The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 533.8, a decrease of 1.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 540.8 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 1.2 percent compared with the previous week but was down 28.2 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The seasonally-adjusted Purchase Index decreased by 2.4 percent to 389.0 from 398.5 the previous week and the Refinance Index increased by 0.6 percent to 1385.2 from 1377.6 one week earlier.

Mortgage rates decreased:

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 6.69 percent from 6.73 percent...

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 6.25 percent from 6.28 percent ...

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

Total	-28.2%
Purchase	-19.0%
Refi	-40.3%
Fixed-Rate	-27.3%
ARM	-30.2%

The MBA also noted:

The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index ties the three year low that was observed five weeks ago.

Purchase activity is off 19.0% compared to the same week last year. This may be the beginning of the another decline in purchase activity.