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Economy in Brief
German PPI Accelerates
The German year-on-year PPI has generally been decelerating since early 2017...
U.S. Leading Economic Indicators Signal Continued Expansion
The Conference Board's Composite Index of Leading Economic Indicators increased 0.3% during March...
Philadelphia Fed Factory Conditions Improve; Prices Jump
The Philadelphia Fed reported that its General Factory Sector Business Conditions Index rose to 23.2 during April...
U.S. Initial Claims for Unemployment Insurance Are Little Changed
Initial unemployment insurance claims slipped to 232,000 (-6.1% y/y) during the week ended April 14...
U.K. Retail Sales Fall
U.K. GDP is expected to cool its jets when the first quarter GDP number is released...
by Tom Moeller July 21, 2010
Lower interest rates continued to spur mortgage applications last week,
according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Overall, mortgage applications
jumped another 7.6% last week. That raised applications 15.2% from June and
42.5% from July '09.
Firm lending activity continued to reflect strong refinancings. Applications for mortgage refinance jumped 8.6% w/w and 21.1% for the month versus June. The level was the highest since May of last year. Conversely, applications to purchase a home remained weak. They recovered the prior week's decline with a 3.4% increase but still were near the lowest level since early-1997. During the last ten years there has been a 51% correlation between the y/y change in purchase applications and the change in new plus existing single family home sales. The correlation has lessened recently.
The effective fixed interest rate on conventional 15-year mortgages slipped further to 4.27% last week. For 30-year mortgages the rate also slipped to an average 4.80%, near the lowest since the early-1960s. Interest rates on fixed 15-year and 30-year mortgages are closely correlated (near-90%) with the rate on 10-year Treasury securities. Rates on adjustable one-year mortgages held roughly steady w/w at 7.23% versus 6.74% at the end of last year.
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 covers roughly 50% of all U.S. residential mortgage applications processed each week by mortgage banks, commercial banks and thrifts. Visit the Mortgage Bankers Association site here. The figures for weekly mortgage applications are available in Haver's SURVEYW database.
Mortgage Prepayments and Changing Underwriting Standards from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco is available here.
BA
Mortgage Applications (SA,3/16/90=100) |
07/16/10 | 07/09/10 | 07/02/10 | Y/Y % | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total Market Index | 753.5 | 700.3 | 721.5 | 42.5 | 736.4 | 642.9 | 652.6 |
Purchase | 168.9 | 163.3 | 168.6 | -35.6 | 263.5 | 345.4 | 424.9 |
Refinancing | 4,161.9 | 3,831.2 | 3,944.6 | 99.2 | 3,509.2 | 2,394.1 | 1,997.9 |
Fixed Rate Applications | 748.6 | 694.0 | 715.7 | 41.9 | 745.4 | 630.1 | 565.1 |
Adjustable Rate Applications | 865.2 | 841.5 | 852.2 | 54.2 | 556.4 | 919.6 | 2,491.6 |
15-Year Mortgage Effective Interest Rate (%) | 4.27 | 4.38 | 4.34 | 4.98(07/09) | 4.85 | 5.9 | 6.2 |