by Calculated Risk on 1/31/2007 09:59:00 AM

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

Click on graph for larger image.

The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 631.3, an increase of 3.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 611.3 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 5.9 percent compared with the previous week and was up 0.7 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The Refinance Index increased by 4.9 percent to 1940.2 from 1848.8 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased by 1.3 percent to 408.0 from 402.7 one week earlier.

Mortgage rates were mixed:

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 6.29 from 6.22 percent ...

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 5.86 percent from 5.91 ...

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 0.1 percent to 430.8 from 430.5 for the Purchase Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased slightly to 47.4 percent of total applications from 47.8 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 21.4 from 20.3 percent of total applications from the previous week.