The
Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) publishes the
results of a weekly applications survey that covers roughly 50 percent of all residential mortgage originations and tracks the average interest rate for 30 year and 15 year fixed rate mortgages as well as the volume of both purchase and refinance applications.
The purchase application index has been highlighted as a particularly important data series as it very broadly captures the demand side of residential real estate for both new and existing home purchases.
The latest data is showing that the average rate for a 30 year fixed rate mortgage (from FHA and conforming GSE data) went declined notably dropping 10 basis points to 4.43% since last week while the purchase application volume declined 2% and the refinance application volume decreased 1% over the same period.
Rates now appear to possibly be trending down after weeks of explosive increases that saw a rise of over 100 basis points seemingly directly correlated with the Feds recent suggestion that they may start to wind down GSE purchases later this year.
It appears now though that Chairman Bernanke's latest comments might have worked to provide a bit more clarity surrounding the Feds plans for QE thereby working to halt the recent run-up in rates.
The following chart shows the average interest rate for 30 year and 15 year fixed rate mortgages since 2006 as well as the purchase, refinance and composite loan volumes (click for larger dynamic full-screen version).
Today, private staffing and business services firm ADP released the latest installment of their National Employment Report indicating that the situation for private employment in the U.S. improved in July as private employers added 200,000 jobs in the month bringing the total employment level 1.79% above the level seen in July 2012. 
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) publishes the results of a weekly applications survey that covers roughly 50 percent of all residential mortgage originations and tracks the average interest rate for 30 year and 15 year fixed rate mortgages as well as the volume of both purchase and refinance applications. 
Today's release of the S&P/Case-Shiller (CSI) home price indices for May reported that the non-seasonally adjusted Composite-10 price index rose a notable 2.48% since April while the Composite-20 index also increased 2.44% over the same period. 
Today, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released their Pending Home Sales Report for June showing that pending home sales declined with the seasonally adjusted national index falling 0.4% from May but increasing 10.9% above the level seen in June 2012. 
Yesterday, the U.S. Census Department released its monthly New Residential Home Sales Report for May showing a improvement with sales climbing a notable 8.3% from April and rising 38.1% above the level seen in May 2012 but still remaining at an historically low level of 497K SAAR units. 
Today, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) released the latest results of their monthly house price index (HPI) showing that in May, nationally, home prices increased 0.68% from April and rose 7.24% above the level seen in May 2012.
