The Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) Market Composite Index—a measure of the weekly mortgage loan application volume—hit 637.6 for the week ending April 18, 2008, a drop of 14.2-percent on a seasonally-adjusted basis from an Index of 743.4 a week before.

This data was published in the MBA's most recent Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey. The survey shows on an unadjusted basis the Index dropped 13.4-percent when compared to the week before and was down 3.2-percent when compared to the previous week.

The Refinance Index, which experienced a significant increase in a more recent survey, also decreased from 2866.0 to 2286.3—a drop of 20.2-percent. In addition, the seasonally-adjusted Purchase Index fell 6.4-percent from 381.6 to 357.3, the Conventional Purchase Index dropped 7.5-percent, and the Government Purchase Index (which includes FHA loans) declined 2.7-percent.

The MBA added that, “The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 49.2-percent of total applications from 53.5-percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 6.6 from 6.0-percent of total applications from the previous week.”

The latest report also includes the following changes:

30-year fixed-rate mortgages: average contract interest rate increased to 6.04-percent from 5.74-percent

15-year fixed rate mortgages: average contract interest rate hit 5.6-percent, an increase from 5.27-percent the week before

one-year ARM: average contract interest rate fell 7.02-percent to 6.93-percent