Refinance and FHA activity dominated the latest Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey released by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) on Wednesday. The survey is for the period ending April 11, 2008.

The Weekly Survey includes a Market Composite Index that measures loan activity volume.

In the latest report, the application volume hit 743.4, which is up 2.5-percent on a seasonally-adjusted basis when compared to the survey's 725.6 index a week earlier. The Index also jumped 2.7-percent on an unadjusted basis when compared to the week before and also hovered 16.4-percent above the same week in 2007.

The MBA elaborated on the recent upswing in refinance activity. “The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 53.5-percent of total applications from 52.2-percent the previous week," the MBA report concluded. "The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 6.0 from 6.5-percent of total applications from the previous week.”

MBA also released the following data:

Refinance Index: Jumped 5.2-percent from 2,724.7 to 2,866.0

Seasonally-Adjusted Purchase Index: Fell 0.8-percent from 384.7 to 381.6

Conventional Purchase Index: Dropped 2.1-percent

Government Index: Increased (FHA loans): increased 3.5-percent