The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending March 5, 2010. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 0.5 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 1.2 percent compared with the previous week.

The Refinance Index decreased 1.5 percent the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 5.7 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 7.2 percent compared with the previous week and was 10.7 percent lower than the same week one year ago.

The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is up 0.8 percent. The four week moving average is up 0.7 percent for the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index, while this average is up 1.0 percent for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 67.2 percent of total applications from 69.1 percent the previous week. The refinance share is at its lowest level since it was 66.1 percent in October 2009. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 5.1 percent from 4.8 percent of total applications from the previous week. This is the highest ARM share since November 2009 when it was 5.3 percent.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 5.01 percent from 4.95 percent, with points decreasing to 0.82 from 0.99 (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 4.32 percent from 4.27 percent, with points decreasing to 0.88 from 1.36 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 6.80 percent from 6.77 percent, with points increasing to 0.3 from 0.29 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.