Up from a dearth seen two weeks ago, mortgage applications leapt to 1.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis last week as numbers tilted toward more government-backed loan purchases and refinancing activity in the category, according to a weekly survey by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).

In releasing the Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey, the trade group found the Market Composite Index also revealing a 1.3-percent surge on an unadjusted basis last week. Given the fervor for government loans, the Purchase Index jumped 1.1 percent forward on a seasonally unadjusted basis from the week before, still 2.9 percent below numbers for the same seen in 2010.

What made the news? A pickup in government loans along seasonally adjusted and unadjusted measures of activity, with the Government Purchase index inching up by 2.4 percent and the Government Refinance Index by 9.9 percent. Conventional purchase and refinance activity plodded behind indices for government loans at 0.1 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively.

A spokesperson for the MBA could not be immediately reached for comment.

The trade group found the four-week moving average ticking up by 1.56 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis, with the same falling by 0.51 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis for the Purchase Index. The Refinance Index saw averages pull forward by 2.15 percent.

Adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) meanwhile fell to 6.0 percent from 6.4 percent of total application volume from the week before.

The MBA found loan size for home purchases cresting at $210,863 on average over September this year, a few notches below $212,736 seen the month before. Refinance loans fell from $241,323 over August to $237,632 last week, with the Pacific region ranking first for biggest refinance loans at an average $339,592.

Thirty-year fixed-rate loans with conforming loan balances saw their contract interest rates surge from 4.18 percent to 4.25 percent on average, alongside increases in origination points from 0.44 to 0.47 for loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans valued at 80 percent.

Reflecting the spike in adjusted government loan activity, 30-year loans guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration inched up to 4.06 percent from 4.05 percent, as points declined to 0.58 from 0.69 for 80-percent LTV ratio loans.

Fifteen-year fixed-rate loans observed a jump to 3.53 percent from 3.49 percent, as points stayed the same at 0.45 points for 80-percent LTV ratio loans. Five- and 1-year ARMs hit 3.03 percent, up from 3.02 percent, as points moved ahead to 0.54 from 0.41 for 80-percent LTV ratio loans.

The numbers for mortgage applications follow a Tuesday forecast from the MBA, which predicted that mortgage applications would fall to $900 billion over 2012.