Econintersect: The 4th of July week in the USA has provided little new data on the depressed housing market except for the weekly mortgage summary. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) stated that for each of the last three weeks, mortgage applications have continued to decline. Their press release today for the period ending 01July2011 in part:
The Refinance Index decreased 9.2 percent from the previous week. The Refinance Index has decreased for 3 consecutive weeks, reaching its lowest level since May 6, 2011. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 4.8 percent from one week earlier.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 4.69 percent from 4.46 percent, with points decreasing to 0.90 from 1.19 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans. This is the highest 30-year rate recorded in the survey since the middle of May 2011.
Hat tip for the following graphic to Calculated Risk:
For a complete review of the latest housing indicators, please visit Econintersect’s analysis posts.
source: MBA, Calculated Risk