by Calculated Risk on 3/21/2007 12:24:00 PM

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reports: Mortgage Applications Decrease in Latest MBA Survey

The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 672.1, a decrease of 2.7 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 690.5 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 2.5 percent compared with the previous week and was up 18 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The Refinance Index decreased 4.5 percent to 2208.6 from 2312.2 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 0.9 percent to 410.6 from 414.3 one week earlier.

Mortgage rates increased slightly:

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 6.06 percent from 6.03 percent ...

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 5.88 from 5.86 percent ...

Click on graph for larger image.

This graph shows the Purchase Index and the 4 and 12 week moving averages since January 2002. The four week moving average is up 1.8 percent to 407.9 from 400.6 for the Purchase Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 45.3 percent of total applications from 46.2 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 20.9 from 21.9 percent of total applications from the previous week.