| Mortgage applications jump 15%, mixed signals abound |
| Mixed signals continue to abound in the US housing market as the National Association of Realtors announced that March pending home sales fell 1% on the same day that the Mortgage Bankers Association announced a 15% jump in mortgage applications and a better than 12% jump in purchase mortgage applications. The increase in mortgage [...] |
| Mortgage applications down again |
| Mortgage applications dropped for a second week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey. Fixed rate mortgage (FRM) and Adjustable Rate Mortgage (ARM) rates both dropped slightly and points increased for all loan terms. 1-Year ARM rates remained near 7% and 30-year FRM rates were still above 6%, while 15-year [...] |
| New home inventory glut worsens |
| The big news in housing this week was the 8.5% drop in new home sales in March 2008, with sales down more than 36% from March 2007. The worse news was a $16,500 (6.8%) drop in new home prices from February. But the news buried a bit deeper and even more troubling is [...] |
| Mortgage applications fall as rates jump |
| 15-year and 30-year Fixed Rate Mortgage (FRM) rates rose more than a quarter percent last week, while Adjustable Rate Mortage (ARM) rates remained near 7%, pushing mortgage applications down by 14% from the previous week. Purchase applications fell 6.4%, while refinance applications, which are particularly sensitive to interest rates, fell more than 20%. [...] |
| Single family sales down 2.7% |
| Existing home sales for all housing types - single family, condo, coop and townhome - fell 2% in March, while single family sales fell 2.7% according to the National Association of Realtors report issued Tuesday. This puts total sales 19.3% below year ago levels and single famliy sales 18.4% below year ago levels, in [...] |
| Housing market still flat |
| Tuesday and Wednesday brought more mixed news and another mixed blessing for the housing market. The Mortgage Banker’s Association’s Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey brought mixed news, with the purchase index down 0.8%, a relatively small weekly fluctuation, the Government Purchase Index (representing mostly FHA loans) up 3.5% and refinances up 5.2%. Strength in [...] |
| Wild ride continues in mortgage applications |
| Mortgage applications moved higher last week, after falling the previous week according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Weekly Mortgage Market Survey. The market continues to be directionless with one week up, the next down. At a seasonally adjusted 384.7, the Purchase Index is 4.5% below the 402.9 level from this time last year; it [...] |
| Pending Home Sales Drop Slightly |
| Pending home sales fell slightly in February, but the January figure was revised upward, according to data released by the National Association of Realtors Tuesday. The February figure fell 1.9% and was down 21.4% from a year earlier, while the January figure was revised up by 0.3%. The revision in January figures resulted [...] |
| Purchase applications slow |
| Whether it was bad economic news, waiting for May’s release of economic stimulus payments or a wait-and-see attitude on proposals to encourage purchases of foreclosed properties with tax credits, home buyers slowed their mortgage applications last week. The Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey showed an 11.8% decrease in new purchase applications and a 38.1% decrease [...] |
| Housing Market: Directionless, Picky |
| The Commerce Department reported today that new home sales fell 1.8% in February, in contrast to the 2.9% increase in existing home sales and a better than 10% increase in new purchase mortgage applications this week. New home sales for January were revised upward and the median home price went from $216,000 in January [...] |
