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Economy in Brief
U.S. Housing Affordability Declines Further in June
The NAR Fixed Rate Mortgage Housing Affordability Index fell 3.6% in June...
EMU Output Makes Solid Gain in June
The European Monetary Union posted a 0.7% increase for industrial output in June...
U.S. Producer Prices Fall During July; Core Increase Weakens
The Producer Price Index for Final Demand fell 0.5% during July...
U.S. Unemployment Claims Continue on an Uptrend
Initial claims for unemployment insurance filed in the week ended August 6 rose 14,000 to 262,000...
RICS Survey Points to More U.K. Housing Sector Weakness
The survey of housing market conditions in the U.K. continues to show strength in prices versus weakness...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Tom Moeller March 9, 2005
The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that mortgage applications slipped 0.7% last week, the fourth consecutive week of decline.
Applications to refinance declined 4.6% following the prior week's 9.9% w/w drop.
Purchase applications rose 2.7% on top of the prior week's 5.3% gain and began the month 4.7% above the February average. During the last ten years there has been a 59% correlation between the y/y change in purchase applications and the change in new plus existing home sales.
The effective interest rate on a conventional 30-year mortgage fell to 5.94% versus 5.98% the prior week. The effective rate on a 15-year mortgage also rose to 5.55% last week.
The Mortgage Bankers Association surveys between 20 to 35 of the top lenders in the U.S. housing industry to derive its refinance, purchase and market indexes. The weekly survey accounts for more than 40% of all applications processed each week by mortgage lenders. Visit the Mortgage Bankers Association site here.
Federal Reserve Board Governor Ben S. Bernanke's speech titled The Economic Outlook can be viewed here.
Loan Quality and How it Reflects the Overall Economy from Federal Reserve Board Governor Mark W. Olson is available here.
MBA Mortgage Applications (3/16/90=100) | 03/04/05 | 02/25/05 | Y/Y | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total Market Index | 704.8 | 710.1 | -20.7% | 735.1 | 1,067.9 | 799.7 |
Purchase | 451.7 | 440.0 | 5.4% | 454.5 | 395.1 | 354.7 |
Refinancing | 2,176.8 | 2,281.1 | -39.0% | 2,366.8 | 4,981.8 | 3,388.0 |