The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending November 3. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 620.9, an increase of 8.8 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 570.8 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 8 percent compared with the previous week and was down 5 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The seasonally-adjusted Refinance Index increased by 11 percent to 1897.9 from 1709.2 the previous week and the Purchase Index increased by 7.1 percent to 402.2 from 375.6 one week earlier. Other seasonally adjusted index activity includes the Conventional Index, which increased by 9.1 percent to 921.1 from 844.2 the previous week, and the Government Index, which increased 4.8 percent to 120.4 from 114.9 the previous week. The four week moving average for the seasonally-adjusted Market Index is up 0.9 percent to 591.5 from 586.1. The four week moving average is up 1.2 percent to 386.2 from 381.5 for the Purchase Index, while this average is up 0.6 percent to 1788.9 from 1778.7 for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 46.3 percent of total applications from 45 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 26.4 percent of total applications from 25.9 percent the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages remained unchanged at 6.24 percent, with points decreasing to 1.08 from 1.09 (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 5.96 percent from 5.94 percent, with points decreasing to 0.97 from 1.03 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 5.89 percent from 5.93 percent, with points decreasing to 0.8 from 0.84 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.