Mortgage Applications: Rise or Fall? 

Mortgage Bankers Association released its weekly survey for the week ending October 3, in which they found that loan application volume increased a slight 2.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier, and fell 28.6 percent compared to the same week in 2007. While the amount of refinance applications was up 0.9 percent from the week ending on September 26, the purchase index saw a greater increase — explaining the decrease in the refinance share of mortgage activity from 44 percent to 43.4 percent.