by Calculated Risk on 8/16/2006 09:49:00 AM

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reports: Refinance Applications Increase

Click on graph for larger image.

The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 561.2, an increase of 1.4 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 553.3 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 0.4 percent compared with the previous week but was down 25.6 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The seasonally-adjusted Purchase Index decreased by 0.8 percent to 385.9 from 388.9 the previous week and the Refinance Index increased by 4.6 percent to 1587.5 from 1518.1 one week earlier.

Mortgage rates increased slightly:

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 6.54 percent from 6.45 percent ...

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 5.97 percent from 5.96 percent ...

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

Total	-25.6%
Purchase	-21.9%
Refi	-30.5%
Fixed-Rate	-23.7%
ARM	-29.9%

Purchase activity continues to fall, and has declined 21.9% compared to the same period last year.