Pending home sales failed to add a third month onto the mini rally it staged in June and July. The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) said its Pending Home Sale Index (PHSI) declined 7.1 percent to 71.8 in August and is now down 18.7 percent from its August 2022 level.... Read more

The highest mortgage rates in 20+ years drove another decline in mortgage applications during the week ended September 22. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said its Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 1.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier and fell... Read more

August sales of newly constructed single-family homes failed to match the robust numbers from July but were significantly better than those a year earlier. The U.S. Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development said last month’s sales were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 675,000, the lowest... Read more

Home prices have resumed their upward climb despite mortgage rates that have doubled post-COVID. According to Craig J. Lazzara, Managing Director at S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices, the National Index for July hit an all-time high. That index, which covers all nine U.S. census divisions, rose 1.0 percent from the previous... Read more

Mortgage application activity bounced back from the holiday-shortened prior week but is still running significantly below historic levels. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said its Market Composite Index, a measure of application volume, increased 5.4 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis during the week ended September 15. On an unadjusted... Read more

Results of the August Residential Construction report from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development were decidedly mixed. While permits were issued at a rate higher than anticipated, housing starts sunk to the lowest level since June 2020, Construction was started on residential units at... Read more

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) said on Monday that its index that measures home builder confidence in the new home market has fallen below the halfway mark for the first time since April.  The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index declined 5 points in December. Coupled with its 6-point... Read more

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said the volume of mortgage applications dipped slightly during the week ended September 8. MBA said its Market Composite Index, a measure of that volume, decreased 0.8 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index dropped 12... Read more

A powerful hurricane and an approaching three-day weekend may have offset the impact of an improvement in interest rates during the week ended September 1. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said its Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, failed to extend its first increase since mid-July... Read more

After falling for five straight weeks, mortgage applications finally gained a little ground last week. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said its seasonally adjusted Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 2.3 percent during the week ended August 25 and was 1 percent higher before adjustment.... Read more

Sales of newly constructed homes appear to be benefitting from the very lack of inventory that is stifling existing home sales.  July’s sales of pre-owned homes lagged sales a year earlier by more than 16 percent while Wednesday’s report on new home sales showed they had jumped ahead of July... Read more

Mortgage interest rates rose again last week, reaching the highest level in nearly a quarter century and further sidelining mortgage borrowers. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported that its Market Composite Index, a measure of loan application volume, declined 4.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier... Read more

Sales of existing homes slipped in July even as median prices sustained their record-high levels. The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) said the month’s sales of single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums, and cooperative apartments were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.07 million units, down 2.2 percent compared to June... Read more

Increased mortgage rates continued to damp down both purchase and refinance activity during the week ended August 11. The Mortgage Bankers Association said its Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 0.8 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from the prior week and declined by 2... Read more

Rising rates took a toll on builder confidence in August. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) said the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) dropped 6 points as rates neared 7 percent. The HMI, a measure of home builder confidence in the market for newly constructed homes, had risen... Read more