Mortgage applications decreased 2.3 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending February 9, 2024.
The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 2.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 2 percent compared with the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 3 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 4 percent compared with the previous week and was 12 percent lower than the same week one year ago.
The Refinance Index decreased 2 percent from the previous week and was 12 percent higher than the same week one year ago.
Mortgage rates (30Y fixed) are up 151% under Bidenomics.
Biden’s economic Dance Macabre! Or Biden’s Mortgage Macabre! Mortgage purchase demand actually fell -1% from the previous week (WoW) and is down -20% from the previous year (YoY).
Mortgage applications increased 3.0 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending November 17, 2023.
The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 3.0 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 0.1 percent compared with the previous week. The Refinance Index increased 2 percent from the previous week and was 4 percent lower than the same week one year ago. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 4 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 1 percent compared with the previous week and was 20 percent lower than the same week one year ago.
And MBA mortgage refis
Not surprising since most homeowners have locked in low borrowing costs prior to the Biden/Congress Covid spendathon and the inflation that followed.
After all, we are seeing the worst home sales data since the 1970s.
Yes, even KJP is finding it difficult to sell Bidenomics to the public (only talking heads like The View and Morning Joe are still trumpeting the greatness of Bidenomics). And now KJP and the Administration are selling Biden’s age of 81 as a treasure trove of experience. Except that Biden’s record in the Senate is an embarrasment. And Biden keeps shuffling and falling and mumbling through his speeches. Watch Biden’s handlers make sure he doesn’t fall again before the election.
Bidenomics strikes … again. No, not his inane ramblings about Hamas being “the other team” or that Hamas has to learn to shoot straight. But his policies freezing effects on the economy. Like housing.
Existing-home sales faded in September, according to the National Association of REALTORS®. Among the four major U.S. regions, sales rose in the Northeast but receded in the Midwest, South and West. All four regions registered year-over-year sales declines.
Total existing-home sales – completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – waned 2.0% from August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.96 million in September. Year-over-year, sales dropped 15.4% (down from 4.68 million in September 2022). … Total housing inventory registered at the end of September was 1.13 million units, up 2.7% from August but down 8.1% from one year ago (1.23 million). Unsold inventory sits at a 3.4-month supply at the current sales pace, up from 3.3 months in August and 3.2 months in September 2022.
The total existing home sales SAAR dropped back below 4mm for the first time since October 2010 (during the foreclosure crisis)…
Source: Bloomberg
Sales fell in all regions except the Northeast in September… and in every price range…
Single-family home sales fell to an annualized 3.53 million pace, the lowest since 2010. Condominium and co-op sales also declined.
“As has been the case throughout this year, limited inventory and low housing affordability continue to hamper home sales,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist.
“The Federal Reserve simply cannot keep raising interest rates in light of softening inflation and weakening job gains.”
First-time buyers made up a historically low 27% of purchases, down from the prior month.
Cash sales represented 29% of total sales, matching the highest level in over a decade. Investors, who often purchase with cash and are therefore less sensitive to mortgage rates, made up 18% of the market.
“It would be very unusual to have higher cash compared to first time buyers,” Yun said on a call with reporters.
And, if mortgage rates (and thus affordability) are anything to go by, things are about to get real…
Source: Bloomberg
The median selling price rose 2.8% from a year earlier to $394,300, the highest September reading on record, pushing affordability even lower. But existing home prices are falling relative to new home prices (with the ratio near record lows)…
It looks like The House may elect a RINO as Speaker (Patrick McHenry, RINO-NC) to replace McCarthy. One RINO replacing another RINO … all so The House can continue its insane, inflation inducing spending.
The US housing market is truly bizarro world! San Francisco and Seattle are down near 10% year-over-year (YoY) while Chicago and Cleveland lead in price gains.
Notice that The Fed’s balance sheet is slowly unwinding (green line) and real weeky “usual” earnings are finally positive after two long years of decline (red line). No growth or loss in home prices at the national level.
How about at the metro level? Chicago, Cleveland, and New York again led the way reporting the highest year-over-year gains among the 20 cities in June. Chicago remained in the top spot with a 4.2% year-over-year price increase, with Cleveland in at number two with a 4.1% increase, and New York held down the third spot with a 3.4% increase. There again was an even split of 10 cities reporting lower prices and those reporting higher prices in the year ending June 2023 versus the year ending May 2023; 13 cities showed price acceleration relative to the previous month.
But The West is where home prices fell and fell hard. The biggest losers were San Francisco (-9.7% YoY) and Seattle (-8.8% YoY). Bubble cities of Phoenix (-7..5% YoY) and Las Vegas (-8.2% YoY) round out the four biggest losers in the nation.
The really interesting chart show the surge in home prices following The Great Recession of 2008 and ensuing financial crisis and post Covid. Of course, the commonality in the surge is the massive expansion of money supply thanks to a hyperactive Federal Reserve.
The puppetmaster of bizarro world? The Federal Reserve!
If we look at the Case-Shiller National home price index against real weekly wage growth, you can see the problem clearly. Since Covid and The Fed’s overreaction by providing staggering monetary stimulus, home prices shot up while real median weekly earnings collapsed.
Buying a house requires a much bigger slice of people’s income now — making this the most unaffordable housing market since 1984, by one measure.
And that crushing lack of affordability isn’t expected to improve much in the near future.
At today’s rates, buying a median-priced home would require a monthly principal and interest payment of $2,440 for those making a 20% down payment, according to Black Knight, a mortgage technology and data provider.
That’s $1,172 a month more in mortgage payments from just two years ago, before the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark lending rate 11 times in 18 months, Black Knight found. It’s a 92% increase — and is taking a growing chunk out of household budgets already facing inflation on many fronts.
Currently, 38.6% of the median household income is required to make the monthly payment on the average home purchase, making housing the least affordable it’s been since 1984, according to Black Knight.
“To put today’s affordability levels in perspective, it would take some combination of up to a 28% decline in home prices, a more than 4% reduction in 30-year mortgage rates, or up to a 60% growth in median household incomes to bring home affordability back to its 25-year average,” said Andy Walden, vice president of enterprise research and strategy at Black Knight.
Must as well face it, we’re addicted to gov. Or at least Fed monetary stimulus.
Just look at Personal Interest payments under Bidenomics.
Mortgage demand (applications) decreased 4.2 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending August 18, 2023.
The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 4.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 6 percent compared with the previous week. The Refinance Index decreased 3 percent from the previous week and was 35 percent lower than the same week one year ago. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 5 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 7 percent compared with the previous week and was 30 percent lower than the same week one year ago.
The spread betweenn Bankrate’s 30 year rate at 7.62% and the effective rate on mortgage debt outstanding at 3.595% has exploded as mortgage rates jump.
Today’s mortgage rates are up to 7.49%. OMG!
Bidenomics (code for making large donors wealthier and the middle class getting the boot) and catch-up for Yellenomics (rates too low for too long), and Powell are helping to burn down the housing market.
Rates on 30-year mortgages in the US are now the highest since 2000, at 7.53%. Mortgage rates are now up 153% under Bidenomics. Rates have gone from sub 3% to above 7.50% under Inflation Joe.
US Treasury yields are playing catch-up from Yellen’s “Too low for too long” monetary policies.
Yes, in part we are playing catch-up from Yellen’s Reign of Error as Fed Chair (keeping rates too low for too long). Only in Washington DC, does gross incompetance warrant a promtion to US Treasury Secretary. Career half-wit Mean Joe Biden is El Presidente and acting like a third world dictator.
Inflation under Biden has been very painful for the US middle class and low wage workers. That inflation has resulted to surging mortgage rates thanks to The Fed’s counterattack.
The result? Mortgage rates are up 134% under Bidenomics, while mortgage purchase demand is down -45% since Biden was selected. And mortgage refinancing demand is down a staggering -90%!
Mortgage applications decreased 3.0 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending July 28, 2023.
The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 3.0 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 3 percent compared with the previous week. The Refinance Index decreased 3 percent from the previous week and was 32 percent lower than the same week one year ago. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 3 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 3 percent compared with the previous week and was 26 percent lower than the same week one year ago.
US interest expenses have surged by about 50% in the past year, to nearly $1 trillion on an annualized basis.
Look at the share of net worth by the top 1% as Treasury borrows more money.
Oddly, Biden is not talking about about putting US government policies up for sale to the highest bidders. But don’t worry. Biden is the King of Corruption in the District of Corruption (Washington DC).
The Biden Administration is gushing about Q2’s Real GDP report of 2.4% QoQ. Wow, after trillions of dollars of stimulus spending and The Fed going wild with monetary stimulus, all we got was 2.4% growth??
Mortgage applications decreased 1.8 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending July 21, 2023.
The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 1.8 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index 1.5 percent compared with the previous week. The Refinance Index decreased 0.4 percent from the previous week and was 30 percent lower than the same week one year ago. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 3 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 2 percent compared with the previous week and was 23 percent lower than the same week one year ago.
Since April 2021, purchase mortgage demand is down -49%, refi mortgage demand is down -87% as mortgage rates are up 115%.
Confounded Interest - Anthony B. Sanders 
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