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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...
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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 23, 2005
The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that mortgage applications dropped 9.5% last week and pulled the average level in March 4.1% below February.
Applications to refinance plummeted 16.5% leaving the February average off 13.5% from February.
Purchase applications fell for the first week in the last four. The 3.5% decline still left purchase applications 5.1% higher than in February.
The effective interest rate on a conventional 30-year mortgage rose to 6.19% from 6.16% the prior week and from 5.85% in February. The effective rate on a 15-year mortgage also rose to 5.81%.
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.
MBA Mortgage Applications (3/16/90=100) | 03/18/05 | 03/11/05 | Y/Y | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total Market Index | 658.8 | 727.6 | -40.9% | 735.1 | 1,067.9 | 799.7 |
Purchase | 446.4 | 462.8 | -0.6% | 454.5 | 395.1 | 354.7 |
Refinancing | 1,894.4 | 2,267.5 | -62.0% | 2,366.8 | 4,981.8 | 3,388.0 |