by Calculated Risk on 11/15/2006 12:33:00 AM

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reports: Rates Fall and Mortgage Applications Rise

Click on graph for larger image.

The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 647.5, an increase of 4.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 620.9 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 7.6 percent compared with the previous week and was down 0.1 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The seasonally-adjusted Refinance Index increased by 6.5 percent to 2022.2 from 1897.9 the previous week and the Purchase Index increased by 2.7 percent to 412.9 from 402.2 one week earlier. The Refinance Index is at its highest level since October 2005.

Mortgage rates decreased:

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 6.15 percent from 6.24 percent ...

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 5.87 percent from 5.89 ...

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 2.6 percent to 606.8 from 591.5. The four week moving average is up 1.8 percent to 393.1 from 386.2 for the Purchase Index, while this average is up 3.7 percent to 1854.9 from 1788.9 for the Refinance Index.

The third graph shows the MBA purchase index since 1990.

The Market Composite Index is at about the same level as one year ago, even though the Purchase Index is about 15% below the comparable week for 2005. The difference is refinance activity is very strong - almost 20% above the comparable week for 2005.