The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending May 6. The Market Composite Index - a measure of mortgage loan application volume - was 781.0, an increase of 9.4 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 714.1 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 9.8 percent compared with last week and was up 5.3 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The MBA seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased by 9.4 percent to 526.2 from 482.5 the previous week whereas the seasonally adjusted Refinance Index increased by 9.8 percent to 2263.3 from 2061.2 one week earlier. On a year-over-year basis the Purchase Index is up 6.5 percent overall while the Conventional Purchase Index is up 10.0 percent.

"Strong support for home sales has been provided by a recent decline in interest rates, a strong jobs market, and nice weather during the spring-buying season," said Douglas Duncan, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, "These factors have led to a record level of purchase applications on both weekly and four-week rolling averages."

Other seasonally adjusted index activity included the Conventional Index, which increased 9.6 percent to 1171.1 from 1068.6 the previous week. The Government Index increased 6.2 percent to 130.1 from 122.5 the previous week.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 39.2 percent of total applications from 39.1 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 35.3 percent of total applications from 33.4 percent the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 5.77 percent from 5.74 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 1.25 from 1.18 (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 5.34 percent from 5.31 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 1.26 from 1.22 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 4.20 percent from 4.14 percent one week earlier, with points decreasing to 0.93 from 0.98 (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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