Interest rates continued their slow decline last week while application volume is inching up almost as slowly. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reports a 1.6 percent increase in its seasonally adjusted Market Composite Index , a measure of mortgage loan application volume. On an unadjusted basis, the Index gained 0.2... Read more

Home sale numbers continue to retreat and in July the National Association of Realtors’® (NAR) Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) fell to its lowest level…. Ever! Based on signed sales contracts for existing single-family houses, townhomes, condos, and cooperative apartments, the PHSI was down 5.5 percent from June to 70.2.... Read more

The mortgage market seemed to be in a wait-and-see mode last week as the Federal Reserve signaled a might, maybe, we are thinking about it, approach to a September rate cut. In the interim, most interest rates inched lower. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said its Market Composite Index, a... Read more

Two major home price indices show home price appreciation is still running well above historical norms. However, increases in the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller indices and the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA’s)Housing Price Index (HMI) were all slightly smaller than the prior month. The Case-Shiller National Home Price Index, covering all... Read more

Existing Homes (the jargon word for a home that has already been owned and occupied) represent a much larger piece of the home sales pie compared to new homes, but the series has  been flagging at historically low levels. When rates dropped at the end of 2023, existing sales perked... Read more

Two weeks ago, we saw a sudden surge in refinancing activity. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported that, during the week ended August 9, its Refinancing Index soared by almost 35 percent, reaching its highest level in over two years, and refinancing represented nearly half of all mortgage applications that... Read more

Residential construction slowed in July. Both the rate of permitting and of housing starts were down from the prior month and starts were the worst in more than four years. The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development said overall starts declined 6.8 percent from June... Read more

The record will show that today's Housing Market Index (aka "builder confidence") from the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo fell to 39 from 41 last month.  That's the 4th straight month of declines and the lowest level of the year.  On the other hand, it's also part of a... Read more

A second week of lower interest rates appeared to send homeowners scrambling to refinance their higher-rate mortgages assumed over the last few years. The Mortgage Bankers Association said its Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 16.8 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis. On an unadjusted... Read more

A drop in interest rates pushed mortgage applications sharply higher last week although nearly all the gains belonged to refinancing. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said its Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 6.9 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier and... Read more

Signed contracts for home sales increased in June, a broad-based improvement seen in all four major regions of the country. The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) said its Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) which tracks those contracts increased 4.8 percent, from a reading of 70.9 to 74.3 . Despite the... Read more

Interest rates were largely unchanged during the week ended July 26. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) says its Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 3.9 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier and was down 4.0 percent on an unadjusted basis. The... Read more

Interest rates and prices continued to curtail home sales in June. The Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development reported on Wednesday that new home sales declined again last month, although the decline was far less severe than the 5.4 percent drop reported for pre-owned homes on... Read more

Home buyers remained on the sidelines as interest rates drifted lower, perhaps paying attention to the Federal Reserve’s musings about future cuts. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reports its Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 2.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis last week and... Read more

Existing home sales fell in June, but the median sales price hit a record high as it had also done in May . The National Association of Realtors® said sales of previously owned single-family houses, townhouses, condominiums, and cooperative apartments receded by 5.4 percent compared both to May and sales... Read more