Recent Updates
- US: Consumer Prices (Mar)
- Bangladesh: CPI (Mar)
- US: NFIB SMall Business Optimism (Mar)
- Egypt: Steel Sales and Production (Mar), BOP (Q4-Prelim)
- Slovenia: BOP, External Debt Liabilities (Feb)
- more updates...
Economy in Brief
U.S. Energy Prices Ease Broadly
The price of regular gasoline eased to $2.85 per gallon (+53.8% y/y) in the week ended April 12...
U.S. Government Budget Deficit Widens During March
The U.S. Treasury Department reported a federal budget deficit of $659.6 billion during March...
FIBER: Industrial Commodity Prices Improve Modestly
The FIBER Industrial Materials Price Index increased 0.9% during the four weeks ended April 9...
EMU Retail Sales Jump, Regaining Some of the January Drop
February finds EU retail sales and motor vehicle registration rebounding...
U.S. PPI Posts Broad-Based Strength in March
The Producer Price Index for final demand jumped 1.0% (4.2% y/y) during March...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
Monetary Policy Blunder: Not Managing Economic & Financial Outcomes Equally
Monetary Policy at a Crossroad: Policymakers Need to Break Promise of Easy Money to Avoid Boom-Bust
State Coincident Indexes in January
Data Surprises, Markets and COVID
by Tom Moeller May 6, 2015
The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Market Volume Index declined 4.6% last week (+21.8% y/y), the third decline in four weeks. Refinance applications fell 8.3% (+30.8% y/y) to the lowest level in four months. Purchase applications gained 0.8% (11.8% y/y) to the highest level since June 2013.
The effective interest rate on a 15-year mortgage increased to 3.27%, up modestly from last month's low of 3.17%. The effective rate on a 30-year fixed rate loan also nudged up to 4.03%. The rate on a Jumbo 30-year loan gained to 3.98%. For adjustable 5-year mortgages, the effective interest rate held steady at 2.99%, but remained near its lowest level since June 2013.
The average mortgage loan size nudged up to $269,100 (9.0% y/y). For purchases it rose to $297,400 (7.2% y/y) but for refinancings it slipped to $243,500.
Applications for fixed interest rate loans increased 25.2% y/y, but adjustable rate loan applications declined 14.0% y/y.
The survey covers over 75 percent of all U.S. retail residential mortgage applications, and has been conducted weekly since 1990. Respondents include mortgage bankers, commercial banks and thrifts. The base period and value for all indexes is March 16, 1990=100. The figures for weekly mortgage applications and interest rates are available in Haver's SURVEYW database.
MBA Mortgage Applications (SA, 3/16/90=100) | 05/01/15 | 04/24/15 | 04/17/15 | Y/Y % | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total Market Index | 427.3 | 447.9 | 458.4 | 21.8 | 361.5 | 616.6 | 813.8 |
Purchase | 207.1 | 205.4 | 205.4 | 11.8 | 172.1 | 197.5 | 187.8 |
Refinancing | 1,697.2 | 1,850.0 | 1,920.1 | 30.8 | 1,449.8 | 3,070.0 | 4,505.0 |
15-Year Mortgage Effective Interest Rate (%) | 3.27 | 3.22 | 3.17 | 3.48 (5/14) |
3.54 | 3.42 | 3.25 |