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Economy in Brief
U.S. Consumer Credit Outstanding Declines in January
Consumers reduced credit balances further in January...
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The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services widened to $68.2 billion in January...
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German order growth is back in gear with total orders rising by 1.4% m/m in January...
U.S. Factory Orders & Shipments Rise Again in January
Manufacturing activity is strengthening. Factory orders rose 2.6% (2.8% y/y) in January...
U.S. Initial Unemployment Insurance Claims Rise Just 9,000
Initial claims for unemployment insurance rose modestly by 9,000 to 745,000 in the week ended February 27...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Tom Moeller April 13, 2005
The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that mortgage applications recovered 6.1% last week to the highest level in four weeks. Nevertheless, the average level so far in April is 3.9% below March which fell 4.8% from February.
Purchase applications reversed all of the prior week's decline and rose 6.4%. The average so far in April is up 0.5% versus March. During the last ten years there has been a 50% correlation between the y/y change in purchase applications and the change in new plus existing single family home sales.
Applications to refinance recovered all of the prior two weeks' declines with a 5.6% jump though the April average still is down 9.8% from March.
The effective interest rate on a conventional 30-year mortgage rose to 6.22% and the effective rate on a 15-year mortgage rose to 5.85%.
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.
Moving Up: Trends in Homeownership and Mortgage Indebtedness from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia can be found here.
MBA Mortgage Applications (3/16/90=100) | 04/08/05 | 04/01/05 | Y/Y | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total Market Index | 683.6 | 644.5 | -13.3% | 735.1 | 1,067.9 | 799.7 |
Purchase | 474.5 | 446.0 | 9.8% | 454.5 | 395.1 | 354.7 |
Refinancing | 1,899.6 | 1,798.8 | -33.6% | 2,366.8 | 4,981.8 | 3,388.0 |