Washington, DC, October 26, 2006--The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending October 20. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 588.6, an increase of 0.5 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 585.8 one week earlier.
On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 0.5 percent compared with the previous week and was down 13 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.
The seasonally-adjusted Refinance Index increased by 1.8 percent to 1790.4 from 1758.2 the previous week and the Purchase Index decreased by 0.6 percent to 382.4 from 384.7 one week earlier.
Other seasonally adjusted index activity includes the Conventional Index, which increased by 0.5 percent to 872.9 from 868.7 the previous week, and the Government Index, which increased 0.3 percent to 114.5 from 114.2 the previous week.
The four week moving average for the seasonally-adjusted Market Index is up 0.9 percent to 601.9 from 596.3. The four week moving average is up 0.4 percent to 388.8 from 387.1 for the Purchase Index, while this average is up 1.6 percent to 1844.1 from 1815.9 for the Refinance Index.
The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 45.6 percent of total applications from 45 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 26.1 percent of total applications from 26.5 percent the previous week.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 6.36 percent from 6.33 percent, with points decreasing to 1.04 from 1.15 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans.
The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 6.03 percent from 6.01 percent, with points decreasing to 1.04 from 1.08 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.
The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 5.97 percent from 5.94 percent, with points increasing to 0.90 from 0.86 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.
