The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending January 6. The Market Composite Index — a measure of mortgage loan application volume was 600.1 -- an increase of 9.9 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 545.9 one week earlier. A holiday adjustment was included in the seasonally adjusted numbers to help account for the reduced application activity during the holiday week. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 27.2 percent compared with the previous week but was down 19.1 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The seasonally-adjusted Purchase Index increased by 9.3 percent to 457.4 from 418.3 the previous week whereas the Refinance Index increased by 9.9 percent to 1497.5 from 1363.2 one week earlier. Other seasonally adjusted index activity includes the Conventional Index, which increased 11.6 percent to 906.2 from 812.0 the previous week, and the Government Index, which decreased 12.1 percent to 89.6 from 101.9 the previous week.

The four week moving average for the seasonally-adjusted Market Index is down 0.8 percent to 573.7 from 578.5. The four week moving average is down 1.2 percent to 440.4 from 445.6 for the Purchase Index while this average is up 1.0 percent to 1384.5 from 1344.5 for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 42.2 percent of total applications from 42.7 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 28.1 percent of total applications from 28.8 percent the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 6.08 percent from 6.15 percent on week earlier, with points decreasing to 1.23 from 1.32 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans.

The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.66 percent from 5.74 percent, with points decreasing to 1.17 from 1.25 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 5.42 percent from 5.41 percent one week earlier, with points remaining at 0.92 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

**SPECIAL NOTES**

The survey covers approximately 50 percent of all U.S. retail residential mortgage originations, and has been conducted weekly since 1990. Respondents include mortgage bankers, commercial banks and thrifts. Base period and value for all indexes is March 16, 1990=100.

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