Econintersect: Disappointment today with weaker than expected residential construction permits. Tomorrow existing home sales will be reported by the National Association of Realtors. Today the Mortgage Bankers Association reported a 14.9% decline in mortgage applications for week ending 14 October 2011- however the week included Columbus Day. Econintersect has reported earlier this week on:
The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 77.6% of total applications from 79.1% the previous week. In today’s real estate market, following mortgage application activity is not providing much clues to the volume of home sales as 29% of existing home sales are cash (no mortgages).
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 4.33% from 4.25%, with points increasing to 0.48 from 0.47 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans. Hat tip to Calculated Risk for the following graph showing mortgage activity is near post-recession lows.
Source: Calculated Risk, MBA,
