by Calculated Risk on 2/14/2007 10:43:00 AM

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

Click on graph for larger image.

The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 639.8, an increase of 1.5 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 630.1 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 4.5 percent compared with the previous week and was up 10.9 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The Refinance Index increased 4.5 percent to 2031.7 from 1943.4 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 1 percent to 400.7 from 404.7 one week earlier.

Mortgage rates were mixed:

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 6.24 percent from 6.23 percent ...

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 5.8 from 5.84 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 2.4 percent to 404 from 413.8 for the Purchase Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity remained unchanged at 46.1 percent of total applications. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 21.2 from 22.3 percent of total applications from the previous week.