Author Archives
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Mortgage Applications Decrease Slightly
The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) latest Weekly Application shows a slight decrease in applications for the week ending July 24, 2020. The Market Composite Index decreased by 0.8% from the previous week on a seasonally adjusted basis. Refinancing activity, one of its determinants, decreased by 0.4% from the previous week, while purchasing activity decreased slightly more by 1.5%. The MBA’s… Read More ›
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Adjustable-rate Mortgage Activity Increases
The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) latest Weekly Application shows an uptick in applications for the week ending July 17, 2020. The Market Composite Index increased by 4.1% from the previous week on a seasonally adjusted basis. Refinancing activity showed continued fervor, increasing by 5.3% from the previous week, while purchasing activity increased moderately by 1.8%. The MBA’s 30-year fixed-rate mortgage… Read More ›
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Home Refinancing Surges
The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) latest Weekly Application shows an uptick in applications for the week ending July 10, 2020. The Market Composite Index increased by 5.1% from the previous week on a seasonally adjusted basis, owing mainly to the surge in refinancing activity of 11.9% compared to a week before. The increase was partially offset by the slowdown of… Read More ›
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Total Consumer Credit in May Decreases
The Federal Reserve’s latest G.19 Consumer Credit Report shows trends in consumer credit, excluding loans secured by real estate, through May 2020. In May, consumer credit decreased at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.3% from the previous month, with revolving debt1 decreasing by 28.6% and nonrevolving debt2 increasing by 2.3 percent. Consumer credit totaled $4.1 trillion on a seasonally… Read More ›
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Mortgage Purchasing Reaches Highest Level in over 10 Years
The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) latest Weekly Application shows an uptick in applications for the week ending July 3, 2020. The Market Composite Index increased by 2.2% from the previous week on a seasonally adjusted basis and its constituent Purchasing and Refinancing indices increased by 5.3% and 0.4%, respectively. The MBA’s 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate fell to a new record… Read More ›
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Treasury-Mortgage Spread Stays Constant in June
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate has been known to follow, albeit loosely, the 10-year Treasury yield. The latter is a widely tracked economic indicator and serves not only as a sign for the pulse of the U.S. economy, but also as a premium for pricing myriad financial instruments, upon which characteristics specific to the financial instrument are added. As 10-year… Read More ›
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Correlation Between Low Housing Supply and Purchase Loan Size
Despite the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) tracked 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage rate moving further downward, by one basis point from the previous week to a new record low of 3.29%, mortgage activity slowed, per the latest Weekly Application Survey. The Market Composite Index, representing purchasing and refinancing activities, decreased by 1.8% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier, with… Read More ›
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Mortgage Activity Decelerates
The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) latest Weekly Application shows a mild slowdown in purchase and refinancing activity from the previous week, on a seasonally adjusted basis. The Market Composite Index decreased by 8.7% and its constituent Purchasing and Refinancing indices decreased by 3.0% and 11.7%, respectively. The MBA’s 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate remained unchanged from the previous week at the… Read More ›
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Virus Impacts: Single-Family and Multifamily Market Concentrations
The first quarter of 2020 witnessed a shift in home building towards less population-dense housing markets in the United States, a trend which was greatly hastened by the onset of COVID-19. While most states issued statewide stay-at-home orders with exemption for construction, some of the hardest-hit states had no exemptions for construction when the pandemic first hit. While NAHB’s Home… Read More ›
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Purchasing and Refinance Activity Thrive Amid Low Rates
As the Mortgage Bankers Association’s 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate reached a new historic low of 3.3%, sliding down by 8 basis points from the previous week, its benchmark Market Composite Index increased by 8% from the previous week, on a seasonally adjusted basis. Purchase applications increased to the highest level in over 11 years and for the ninth consecutive week…. Read More ›