by Calculated Risk on 11/16/2005 11:30:00 AM

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its weekly survey today:

The Market Composite Index — a measure of mortgage loan application volume – was 657.6 a decrease of 0.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 661.3, one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 12.1 percent compared with the previous week and was down 13.7 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

Click on graph for larger image.

This graph show the seasonally adjusted MBA Market and Purchase indices since the beginning of July. The market index had been steadily declining for several months, mostly reflecting a slowing in refinance activity, but has been flat over the last couple of weeks.

The purchase index had stayed steady, reflecting the continued strength in new and existing homes sales. The Purchase index started to fall early this month, probably indicating slowing home sales, but has risen slightly over the last couple of weeks (these numbers are seasonally adjusted).

Mortgage interest rates continued to rise:

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 6.33 percent from 6.31 percent on week earlier...

This is up from 6.06 percent three weeks ago.

The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 5.87 percent from 5.85 percent...

This is up from 5.37 percent three weeks ago.