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Strategies & Market Trends : The Epic American Credit and Bond Bubble Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Crimson Ghost who wrote (13724)	5/12/2004 3:53:03 PM
From: TheSlowLane	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 110194

I didn't see it, but there was a segment on Bubblevision this morning covering "creative financing" for homebuyers, since RE has gotten out of reach for many. I love those Fannie Mae commercials where they say "We're going to help everybody who wants a home buy one" (the phrase "can afford" was conspicuously absent).

To: Crimson Ghost who wrote (13724)	5/12/2004 5:04:22 PM
From: russwinter	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 110194

The credit bubble is strangely bifurcated. Refis have basically collapsed, but the puchase index hits a new all-time high. Essentially, a bunch of consumers being squeezed by high energy, food andother costs, desperately trying to stay in the American dream, by "being a homeowner" (maybe a two homeowner?) with ultra low down ARMs. Huge 30 / one year ARM spread developing. WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 12, 2004)—The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending May 7. The Market Composite Index of mortgage loan applications-a measure of mortgage loan applications for purchases and refinancings-decreased by 5.0 percent to 742.2 on a seasonally adjusted basis from 780.9 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased by 4.1 percent compared with last week and was down 45.2 percent compared with the same week one year earlier. The MBA seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased by 2.4 percent to 494.3 from 482.5 the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Refinance Index decreased by 13.2 percent to 2184.6 from 2516.0 one week earlier. Other seasonally adjusted index activity included the Conventional Index, which decreased 4.1 percent to 1088.2 from 1134.2 the previous week. The Government Index decreased 13.9 percent to 164.8 from 191.4 the previous week. The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 39.8 percent of total applications from 44.0 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 34.8 percent of total applications from 32.1 percent the previous week. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 6.32 percent from 6.10 percent from one week earlier, with points increasing to 1.44 from 1.38 the previous week (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans. The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 5.72 percent from 5.44 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 1.27 from 1.24 the previous week (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 3.74 percent from 3.69 percent one week earlier, with points decreasing to 0.97 from 0.98 from the previous week (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.