by Calculated Risk on 1/20/2010 10:12:00 AM

The MBA reports: Refinance Applications Increase as Mortgage Rates Fall in Latest MBA Weekly Survey

The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 9.1 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. ...

The Refinance Index increased 10.7 percent from the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 4.4 percent from one week earlier. ...

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.00 percent from 5.13 percent, with points decreasing to 1.05 from 1.17 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans.

Click on graph for larger image in new window.

This graph shows the MBA Purchase Index and four week moving average since 1990.

The four week moving average has declined sharply since October, and is slightly above the 12 year low set last week.