by Calculated Risk on 7/22/2009 08:37:00 AM

The MBA reports:

he Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 528.9, an increase of 2.8 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 514.4 one week earlier.
...
The Refinance Index increased 4.0 percent to 2089.7 from 2009.4 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 1.3 percent to 262.1 from 258.8 one week earlier.
...
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 5.31 percent from 5.05 percent ...
emphasis added

Click on graph for larger image in new window.

This graph shows the MBA Purchase Index and four week moving average since 2002.

Note: The increase in 2007 was due to the method used to construct the index: a combination of lender failures, and borrowers filing multiple applications pushed up the index in 2007, even though activity was actually declining.

Mortgage rates increased last week, but will decline again with the Ten Year yield falling this week.