Mortgage applications bounced back last week after nearly a month in the doldrums when the number of applications fell to a seven-month low.
The market index compiled by the Mortgage Bankers Association rose 6.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis to 548.2 points from 514.4 points the previous week.
On an unadjusted basis, the index increased 6 percent compared with the previous week and rose 17.2 percent compared with the same week a year ago.
Both purchases and refinances were up with the purchase share increasing 7.3 percent and refinances rising 5.9 percent.
Source: Mortgage Bankers Association (06/24/2009)
New-Home Sales Nearly Flat in May
Sales of new homes were virtually flat in May, compared to April, but down about one-third from the number of sales during the same period a year ago, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.
Home sales slid 0.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 342,000. The number of new homes for sale declined 2.3 percent to 292,000, a 10.2-month supply.
The decline in new-home sales was entirely focused on the South, where sales fell 8.5 percent for the month. Meanwhile, sales of new homes gained 1.3 percent in the West and posted double-digit gains of 28.6 percent and 18.6 percent in the Northeast and Midwest, respectively.
“Today’s report provides further evidence that the recovery is going to be a slow one as the housing market continues to bump along, trying to find a bottom,” the National Association of Home Builder’s Chief Economist David Crowe says. “The good news is that, even as the sales pace leveled in May, inventories of unsold new homes continued to shrink for a 25th consecutive month – a trend that is helping bring supply and demand into better alignment and thereby setting the stage for an eventual market recovery.”
Source: The National Association of Home Builders (06/24/2009)