by Calculated Risk on 11/08/2006 01:08:00 AM

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reports: Mortgage Applications Rise (fixed)

Click on graph for larger image.

The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 620.9, an increase of 8.8 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 570.8 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 8 percent compared with the previous week and was down 5 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The seasonally-adjusted Refinance Index increased by 11 percent to 1897.9 from 1709.2 the previous week and the Purchase Index increased by 7.1 percent to 402.2 from 375.6 one week earlier.

Mortgage rates were stable:

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages remained unchanged at 6.24 percent ...

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 5.89 percent from 5.93 percent ...

The second graph shows the Purchase Index and the 4 and 12 week moving averages since January 2002.

The four week moving average for the seasonally-adjusted Market Index is up 0.9 percent to 591.5 from 586.1. The four week moving average is up 1.2 percent to 386.2 from 381.5 for the Purchase Index, while this average is up 0.6 percent to 1788.9 from 1778.7 for the Refinance Index.