Good News on the Housing Industry
The Mortgage Bankers Association released their Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending September 5, 2008, which is a survey conducted of around 50% of all the United States retail residential mortgage applications. The survey has been conducted since 1990 and includes commercial banks, thrifts, and mortgage bankers.
Over the last week of August, mortgage applications increased 7.5% over the prior week as reported by the Mortgage Bankers Association due to a rush in purchase loans.
During the time period of August 22 to August 29, the purchase loan index component rose 1.5% with an increase in the refinance index of 2.1%. The government index rose 19.9% mainly due to FHA loans.
Even though we saw an increase in purchase loans, refinance loan applications dropped to 34% and adjustable rate mortgage loans dropped to 6.6%.
The Mortgage Bankers Association stated the average interest rate on 30-year mortgages dropped to 6.39%. With a 30-year mortgage, borrowers were required to pay 1 point on average in order to receive the rate. The average rate on 15-year fixed rate mortgages rose to 5.95% with borrowers paying for 1.03 points and the average for 1-year adjustable rate mortgages dropped to 7.11% with borrowers paying for 0.35 point.
After another week, we are still seeing increases in mortgage applications through this survey. An increase 9of 9.5% was noted and the Refinance Index increased 15.4%. The 4-week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index rose to 4.4%.
On a 30-year fixed rate mortgage there was a decrease in the interest rate from 6.39% to 6.06% with points rising to 1.02.
On a 15-year fixed rate mortgage there was a decrease in the interest rate from 5.96% to 5.73 with points lowering to 0.98
The average contract interest rate for 1-year adjustable rate mortgages decreased from 7.11% to 7.00% with points decreasing to 0.30.
If this is any type of an indicator, the housing industry may be seeing a good turn with more people seeking mortgage loans. As long as we are seeing more mortgage applications being filed, we may see the light at the end of the tunnel within a few weeks.
August 16th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
Its refreshing to see that our housing and financial situation seems to be steadily improving. All the years I have worked in the mortgage industry, i havent seen so much hardship and despair than in the last few years…
August 26th, 2009 at 5:46 am
Nice article, Thanks for sharing information about housing industry.
September 10th, 2009 at 4:45 am
It is a good sign for those people who are looking for mortgage loans in bearable conditions.
September 24th, 2009 at 2:41 am
30 year mortgage! That’s a long time! The housing market looks to be on the mend. Lets keep our fingers crossed and hope this never happens again or at least not anytime soon.
December 16th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
Things really seem to be turning around at this point. Things are even better since you first wrote this post. The question is- is this a result of the tax credit? will it last?