Mortgage Rates

The volume of mortgage applications rose fractionally last week as rates edged down and applications for refinancing staged a small comeback. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said its Market Composite Index, a measure of that volume, increased 0.7 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier although it… Read more »

It's one of the perennial "yeah buts" of the two largest and most widely-cited home price indices: there data is always about 2 months old by the time it comes out.  This is the nature of home price reporting.  It doesn't mean the data is bad or wrong--simply that it… Read more »

Pending Home Sales hit their most recent peak in October according to data reported in November, 2021 by the National Association of Realtors (NAR).  In each of the subsequent 6 months, the NAR's Pending Home Sales Index declined until bottoming out in April at 99.2.  Apart from the first 2 months… Read more »

Last month's New Home Sales data from the Census Bureau was a real downer.  It showed sharp declines in sales and a puzzlingly abrupt jump in inventory levels.  One thing we used to point out about this data series was its immense margins of error.  These could frequently result in… Read more »

Rates may be much higher in each of the past 3 months, but those with mortgages are making their payments with record-setting regularity.  The overall delinquency rate fell 0.05% to 2.75% in May--the third consecutive record low. Serious delinquencies (90 days or more past due, but not in foreclosure) are… Read more »

An increase in home purchase activity drove mortgage applications higher during the week ended June 17. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said its Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, rose 4.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis and was up 3.0 percent from the prior week… Read more »

April, May, and June of 2020 were the only 3 months where Existing Home Sales suffered as a result of the pandemic.  During those three months, the annual pace averaged roughly 4.4 million versus the last pre-pandemic reading of 5.4 million. That number jumped to nearly 6 million in July… Read more »

As might have been expected considering the sixth consecutive drop in the National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB’s) Housing Market Index released yesterday, residential builders pulled back in a big way last month. Both residential permitting and housing starts plummeted in June , although both so far are ahead of… Read more »

Builders are increasingly nervous about the impact inflation and higher interest rates might have on prospective home buyers in coming months. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) said on Wednesday that its Housing Market Index (HMI) which it co-sponsors with Wells Fargo, reflected this as it declined for the… Read more »

Mortgage application volume increased during the week ended June 10 after four straight weeks of declines. However, the overall gains shown by data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA’s) weekly Mortgage Applications Survey was only a resumption of application activity patterns two weeks earlier. The business week ended June 3… Read more »