[NTBKtrader]

http://www.inman.com/inmannews.aspx?ID=60616

Overall mortgage application volume declined by double digits last week from one week earlier amid gradually rising interest rates, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported today.

The market composite index, which measures total home loan volume, fell to 555.8 last week, down 14.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 647.6 the week before.

Refinancings took the largest hit, as the seasonally adjusted refinance index decreased by 18.5 percent to 1,604.6 from 1,968.8 the previous week. The purchase index decreased by 10.6 percent to 390.2 from 436.5 one week earlier.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 48.8 percent of total applications from 50.8 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 23.1 from 23.6 percent of total applications during the period, and is now at its lowest level since October 2003.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 6.12 from 6.1 percent, with points including the origination fee increasing to 0.96 from 0.93 for 80 percent loan-to-value-ratio loans.

Points, which are fees charged by lenders for loan processing, are expressed as a percent of the total loan amount.

The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 5.84 percent from 5.82 percent. Points including the origination fee rose to 1.06 from 0.99 for 80 percent loan-to-value-ratio loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 5.87 percent from 5.82, with points including the origination fee decreasing to 0.80 from 0.83 for 80 percent loan-to-value-ratio loans.

Washington, D.C.-based Mortgage Bankers Association is a national association representing the real estate finance industry. The survey covers approximately 50 percent of all U.S. retail residential mortgage originations, and has been conducted weekly since 1990. Respondents include mortgage bankers, commercial banks and thrifts.

[TreebeardsUncle]

What's wrong? Did they run of out stupid people?
Is there all of a sudden a shortage of witless fools
or are they already so indebted that they can't overextend anymore. Sounds like the mortgage snakes have piled this bill of goods as high as they can and this leaning tower of manure is starting to wobble and their crap-shoveler is running out of steam.

g

[Cobra_Strike]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TreebeardsUncle', 'W')hat's wrong? Did they run of out stupid people?
Is there all of a sudden a shortage of witless fools
or are they already so indebted that they can't overextend anymore. Sounds like the mortgage snakes have piled this bill of goods as high as they can and this leaning tower of manure is starting to wobble and their crap-shoveler is running out of steam.

g

[TommyJefferson]

On a positive note, there should be 14% fewer mortgage brokers fouling the world.

[vision-master]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'O')verall mortgage application volume declined by double digits last week from one week earlier amid gradually rising interest rates, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported today.

[Tyler_JC]

Yeah, sometimes those "seasonal adjustments" are helpful.

If this trend continues into the future, we might have something here. If not, it's just a seasonal blip.

[cube]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cobra_Strike', '.')....If listening to CNBC today is any metric of how the mainstream feels....this is only a 'temporary' setback. And next year will see a continuation of the irrational exuberance doomers have come to know and fear. I can't imagine that there are enough stupid people left. This IS America, so.....

[TreebeardsUncle]

Hi.
The media is making a big fuss about new home sales prices coming up a bit in the past couple of months. There are some problems with the idea that is being pushed that this uptick indicates a bottoming out and a turn-around in the real estate market. For one thing, it doesn't speak to sales of existing homes whose sellers have been undercut by production home builders who can afford to sell for much less. They, the media, are also ignoring the coming readjustments in ARMs, the general unaffordability of housing for most people, and the difficulty folks are likely to have in refinancing in the absence of appreciation.
More likely this is just a pause on a rung of a ladder leading downward. Let's see how things go late this summer when there is a surge of inventory due to overextended ARM buyers unable to make their higher mortgage payments flooding the market with their overpriced houses and see how well they can sell them in a financially upside-down position.

[alecifel]

The most damning news that didn't come out of all of this, is that the US Dollar is largely backed by American property values. During the S&L Crisis of the 80's the Fed and Fannie Mae conspired to make mortgage bundles a security, and sold them to raise capital for the government (which has since long been blown overseas on extravagences like imported oil, cheap furniture from China and unilateral invasions of other nations.)

If property values drop so does the value of the buck. See a problem?