by Calculated Risk on 5/24/2006 08:43:00 AM

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reports: Mortgage Application Volume Declines


Click on graph for larger image.

The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 552.6, a decrease of 6.0 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 588.0 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 6.2 percent compared with the previous week and was down 23.0 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The seasonally-adjusted Purchase Index decreased by 7.1 percent to 396.4 from 426.7 the previous week whereas the Refinance Index decreased by 4.3 percent to 1480.5 from 1546.8 one week earlier...

Mortgage rates decreased slightly:

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 6.61 percent from 6.66 percent ...

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 6.02 percent from 6.07 percent ...

Change in mortgage applications from one year ago (from Dow Jones):

Total	-23.0%
Purchase	-17.1%
Refi	-31.7%
Fixed-Rate	-17.9%
ARM	-32.5%

Using the MBA weekly data, it appears purchase activity in May '06 will be about 15% below May '05.