September 6th, 2008 10:02 AM by Brian Banak
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending August 29, 2008 and applications are up 5.8 percent. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 453.1, an increase of 7.5 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 421.6 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 5.8 percent compared with the previous week and was down 27.0 percent compared with the same week one year earlier. The four-week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is up 1.2 percent. The four-week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Purchase index is up 2.7 percent. The increase in mortgage applications may be evidence that the housing market is beginning to firm up.