by Calculated Risk on 11/29/2006 12:21:00 AM

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reports: Mortgage Applications Fall in Latest Survey

Click on graph for larger image.

The week was shortened due to the Thanksgiving holiday.

The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 599, a decrease of 3.9 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 623.6 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 34.4 percent compared with the previous week and was down 1.6 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The seasonally-adjusted Refinance Index decreased by 9.6 percent to 1749.6 from 1935.3 the previous week and the Purchase Index increased by 1.3 percent to 406.7 from 401.4 one week earlier.

Mortgage rates were stable:

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages remained at 6.13 percent ...

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 5.87 percent from 5.88 ...

The second graph shows the Purchase Index and the 4 and 12 week moving averages since January 2002. The four week moving average is up 2 percent to 405.8 from 398 for the Purchase Index.

Although overall mortgage applications have declined, seasonally adjusted purchase applications have moved up slightly over the last few weeks.