by Calculated Risk on 3/07/2007 09:42:00 AM

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reports: Refinance Applications Jump As Mortgage Rates Decline

The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 671.6, an increase of 7.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 626.1 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 19.9 percent compared with the previous week and was up 15.6 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The Refinance Index increased 15 percent to 2234.2 from 1943.5 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 1 percent to 405.3 from 401.3 one week earlier.

Mortgage rates declined:

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 6.04 percent from 6.16 percent ...

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 5.79 from 5.92 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 slightly to 397.2 from 397 for the Purchase Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 46.1 percent of total applications from 43.2 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 21.4 from 21.1 percent of total applications from the previous week.