Having started the new year with a slight bump, mortgage application volume continued to climb in early January, the ""Mortgage Bankers Association"":http://mba.org/default.htm (MBA) reported Wednesday.
[IMAGE]According to the group's Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey, loan application numbers rose a seasonally [COLUMN_BREAK]
adjusted 11.9 percent for the week ending January 10. Unadjusted, the index was up 61 percent week-over-week.
The previous week's results had included an adjustment for the New Year's holiday.
The Refinance Index increased 11 percent for the week, though not enough to stop refinance share from falling a percentage point to 62 percent--the lowest since the end of September last year.
The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index rose 12 percent, meanwhile, bringing it to a level last observed in mid-November. The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 66 percent week-over-week, still falling 10 percent short of the same time last year.
Meanwhile, mortgage rates saw a pullback. According to MBA's figures, the average contract interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 4.66 percent for the week, down from 4.72 percent. Points increased to 0.33 from 0.28 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value ratio loans.