Good News! Purchase Mortgage Applications Rose 17 Percent Since Same Week Last Year (Mortgage Refis Surge 23 Percent From Previous Week)

The Fed didn’t try, but mortgage rates fell and mortgage applications rose 10.9% week-over-week.

Mortgage applications increased 10.9 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending August 8, 2025.

The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 10.9 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 10 percent compared with the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 1 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 1 percent compared with the previous week and was 17 percent higher than the same week one year ago.

The Refinance Index increased 23 percent from the previous week and was 8 percent higher than the same week one year ago.

The 30-year fixed mortgage rate declined to 6.67 percent last week, which spurred the strongest week for refinance activity since April. Borrowers responded favorably, as refinance applications increased 23 percent, driven mostly by conventional and VA applications. Refinances accounted for 46.5 percent of applications and as seen in other recent refinance bursts, the average loan size grew significantly to $366,400. Borrowers with larger loan sizes continue to be more sensitive to rate movements.

Good News! Business Applications Booming As Inflation Remains Calm (No Negative Impacts From Tariffs)

Let the good times roll! Booming business applications under Trump and calm inflation.

The latest inflation report continues to show no negative impact from tariffs. Core goods prices were up 0.2% in July. They are up just 1.1% over the past 12 months and are actually up a lesser 0.8% since President Trump began phasing in tariffs.

Business applications are booming under Trump’s economy.

While consumer prices are calm (2.7% YoY).

Shelter inflation is higher than the average price increase (3.7% YoY).

Mortgage Applications Increased 3 Percent From Previous Week (Purchase Apps Rose 1 Percent WoW)

They can’t accuse Fed Chair Jerome Powell of trying too hard to help Donald Trump. Mortgage rates moved lower last week, following declining Treasury yields as economic data releases signaled a weakening U.S. economy. As a result, the 30-year fixed rate decreased for the third straight week to 6.77 percent. As a result …

The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 3.1 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 3 percent compared with the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 2 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 1 percent compared with the previous week and was 18 percent higher than the same week one year ago.

The Refinance Index increased 5 percent from the previous week and was 18 percent higher than the same week one year ago.

And the number of sellers in the housing market is greatly outweighing the number of buyers.

Mortgage and housing economists should breathe a sigh of relief that Bidenomics is over, but I doubt it they will.

Gov’t Gone Wild! First-time Home Buyers At Lowest Level Since 2000 As Federal Government Spends Economy Into Oblivion (As Fed Keeps Rates High, M2 Money Goes Parabolic)

kkk

Gov’t Gone Wild! Purchasing Power Of US Dollar Declined 97% Since 1915, US Debt Up 317% Since Jan 2009 (M2 Money Up 210% Since Jan 2009)

It’s Gov’t Gone Wild! That includes The House, Senate, President and Federal Reserve.

The purchasing power of the US Dollar was $1004.4 on 1915-03-01. By 2025-05-01, the purchasing power fell to $31.1, a loss of 97%. Public debt since the last year of GW Bush, Obama/Biden (with a brief hiatus with Trump) rose 317% since January 2009.

M2 Money printing grew 210% since January 2009.

The music??

Debt Slavery! As Of Q1 2025, GDP Growth Equalled Gov’t Debt (Unfortunately, Big Beautiful Bill Doesn’t Cut Enough Spending)

Finally, US government debt growth (YoY) was approximately equal to US nominal GDP growth in Q1 2025.

Unfortunately, the BBB (Big Beautiful Bill) is projected to add $3.9 trillion of debt. Unfortunately, there are insufficient spending cuts in the BBB. And the Senate just nixed kicking illegal immigrants off of Federal healthcare programs.

Unfortunately, GDP growth is only expected to be modest with debt growth once again rising faster than GDP growth. As Diane Feinstein once said, politicians are elected to spend money. This, of course, was a ridiculous statement embraced by spend-crazy Democrats and RINOs.

So, Congress has committed American taxpayers to debt slavery.

New Homes For Sale Near Financial Crisis Highs (Big Short Redux?)

I sure hope this isn’t a repeat of the financial crisis! But new homes for sale have ballooned to financial crisis levels.

Home sales have dropped below year-ago levels, presaging likely declines in mortgage supply and turnover. With completed-home inventories hitting post-global financial crisis (GFC) highs, regional surpluses are emerging as key home-price factors, setting the stage for widening pockets of price weakness in the months ahead.

Contributing to the glut of new homes for sale is the rising prices AND higher mortgage rates.

US Q2 Real GDP Remains At 2.9% (So Much For The Doom Forecast Of Tariffs Crashing The US Economy)

So much for the doom porn from the media about the US economy collapsing due to Trump’s tariffs! The US economy (real GDP) in Q2 is still growing at 2.9%.

Latest estimate: 2.9 percent — June 27, 2025

The GDPNow model estimate for real GDP growth (seasonally adjusted annual rate) in the second quarter of 2025 is 2.9 percent on June 27, down from 3.4 percent on June 18. After recent releases from the US Census Bureau and the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, an increase in the nowcast of the contribution of net exports to second-quarter real GDP growth from 2.07 percentage points to 3.49 percentage points was more than offset by a decrease in the nowcasted GDP growth contribution of inventory investment from -0.42 percentage points to -2.22 percentage points.

Here is the data.

And with Democratic Socialist (aka, Communist) Zohran Mamdani winning the Democratic nomination for mayor, New York City will likely become the new Detroit.

Going Down! New Home Sales Plunged In May As Mortgage Rates Rose (Worst Since June 2022)

New home sales are going down.

New home sales plunged in May, the biggest MoM drop since June 2022.

The median sales price increased 3% from a year ago to $426,600 last month, marking the first year-over-year price gain in 2025.

The plunge in new home sales came as mortgage rates ticked back higher.

Another example of the carnage left behind by President Autopen (Joe Biden).

Keep On Printing? Home Prices Slow In April, But Still Up 2.64% YoY As Fed Continues To Print Money

The Fed continues printing money! And home prices continue to rise on year-over-year basis, but falling on a month-over-month basis.

Home prices in April tumbled 0.31% MoM (-0.02% exp) – the biggest MoM drop since Dec 2022.

But if we look at the national home prices via S&P Case-Shiller and YoY rather than MoM, home prices ROSE 2.64% YoY.

You can see the damage to homeownership caused by Covid and The Fed. The massive expansion of M2 Money in 2020 was followed shortly by rapid increases in home prices. This was followed by a normalization in Fed M2 Money printing. Consequently, home price growth has slowed.