by Calculated Risk on 2/21/2007 10:28:00 AM

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reports: Mortgage Applications Decrease

Click on graph for larger image.

The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 606.6, a decrease of 5.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 639.8 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 2.9 percent compared with the previous week and was up 4.1 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The Refinance Index decreased 5.4 percent to 1921.1 from 2031.7 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 4.8 percent to 381.4 from 400.7 one week earlier.

Mortgage rates were mixed:

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 6.19 percent from 6.24 percent ...

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 5.81 from 5.8 percent ...

The second graph shows the Purchase Index and the 4 and 12 week moving averages since January 2002. The four week moving average is down 1.3 percent to 398.7 from 404 for the Purchase Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 44.9 percent of total applications from 46.1 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity remained unchanged at 21.2 percent of total applications from the previous week.