Freddie Mac reported that fixed rate products were up for the fourth week in a row with the 30-year fixed at 5.73 percent compared to 5.66 percent the previous week and the 15-year up 7 basis points to 5.32 percent. Fees and points, however, dropped a bit dramatically, from 0.6 to 0.4 for both kinds of fixed rate mortgages. This is the lowest point for fees and points this year.

The 5/1 hybrid ARM was also up from 5.15 percent for the previous week to 5.26 percent and the 1-year ARM increased from 4.39 percent to 4.42 percent. Again, fees and points were lower at 0.5 for the 5/1 (compared to 0.7) and 0.6 for the one year, down 0.1 from the previous week.

The MBA survey had the 30-year fixed unchanged at 5.72 percent and associated points (including the origination fee) up to 1.31 from 1.14. The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage increased to 5.32 percent from 5.28 percent, with fees and points decreasing almost imperceptivity to 1.25. The one-year ARM increased to 4.70, up 7 basis points from one week earlier. Points for this product decreased .01 to 0.98.

The MBA survey showed that mortgage applications decreased 5.8 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from the week of July 15 but were still running well ahead of the 2004 pace; 20.7 percent higher than the same week in 2004.

Given the increasing rates, it is no surprise that refinancing as a share of total loan applications dropped from 45.7 percent to 42.9 percent for the week. However, the adjustable rate mortgage share increased to 29.4 percent from 28.5 the previous week.