by Calculated Risk on 7/09/2008 10:32:00 AM

From the MBA: Mortgage Applications Increase In Latest MBA Weekly Survey

The MBA Purchase Index is probably not useful in predicting future housing activity because the index is not corrected for multiple applications. HousingWire has more on this issue: Mortgage Applications Continue to Paint Mixed Picture

A separate index maintained by Mortgage Maxx LLC, a company that provides prepayment data to Wall Street researchers, reached a much different conclusion earlier in the week: the company’s Max index found that applications actually fell slightly, off 0.2 percent from the week before.
...
“The MBA index gives us overall applications, which may or may not translate into demand,” said one source, an ABS analyst that asked not to be named. “The reason is simple: when you control for the applicant’s address, we’re seeing a very different picture that’s more in line with the Max.”

But the MBA survey does provide information about mortgage rates, and rates moved back up again:

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 6.43 percent from 6.33 percent...