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Strategies & Market Trends : Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: mishedlo who wrote (26224)	3/23/2005 7:05:07 PM
From: CalculatedRisk	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 116555

Mortgage Applications Down Last Week-MBA news.yahoo.com Wed Mar 23, 2:38 PM ET Business - Reuters NEW YORK (Reuters) - Applications for U.S. home mortgages decreased last week as rising interest rates led to a sizable decrease in refinancing activity and purchasing, an industry group said on Wednesday. "The increase in mortgage rates has reduced application activity across the board, particularly for refinances. Refinance applications are down more than 60 percent relative to this time last year," Michael Fratantoni, MBA's senior director of single family research and economics, said in a press release. Interest rates on fixed 30-year loans edged up last week, and have been steadily climbing in recent weeks. Fixed 30-year mortgage rates averaged 5.95 percent last week, excluding fees, up 4 basis points from 5.91 percent the previous week, but 24 basis points higher than a month ago. The MBA's seasonally adjusted index of refinancing applications dropped 16.5 percent to 1894.4, after rising 4.2 percent the prior week. Refinancings also decreased as a percentage of all mortgage applications, falling to 39.5 percent from 42.9 percent the previous week. Ditech.com, one of the nation's leading online lenders, has seen a significant drop in demand for refinancings. "Consumers are becoming increasingly reactionary and are very savvy about what they want and can afford," said Michael McCarthy, general manager at Ditech.com. McCarthy said that while interest in loan refinancing has dropped over the past month, he has seen a 15 percent increase in demand for home equity lines of credit during the same time period. Overall, the Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity decreased 9.5 percent to 658.8 in the week ended March 18, more than offsetting the 3.2 percent rise the week before. In spite of last week's large decline, analysts note that the MBA's refinancing index remains at an elevated level. In July of 2004, with comparable mortgage rates, the index stood at around 1650, about 15 percent below last week. "It is not entirely clear why strong refinancing activity persists, although we suspect that lender solicitation plays an important role," Citigroup analysts said in commentary Wednesday. "However, higher mortgage rates will eventually prevail, and given another selloff yesterday, we expect the MBA refinancing index to come down substantially in the next couple of weeks," the firm added. The MBA's purchase index, a gauge of loan requests for home purchases, declined for the first time in four weeks, falling 3.5 percent 446.4, after it gained 2.5 percent the previous week. Lower purchasing activity also is likely in the future. Sales of existing U.S. homes fell 0.4 percent in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.79 million units last month, the National Association of Realtors said. That figure includes both single-family homes and condominiums. Applications for adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) increased to 33.5 percent from 32.4 percent of total applications. One-year ARM rates averaged 4.12 percent, down from 4.19 percent one week earlier. The MBA's survey covers approximately 50 percent of all U.S. retail residential mortgage originations, and has been conducted weekly since 1990. Respondents include mortgage bankers, commercial banks and thrifts.

To: mishedlo who wrote (26224)	3/23/2005 7:06:03 PM
From: CalculatedRisk	Respond to of 116555

A great resource for real estate related stories: patrick.net He keeps a nice running list.

To: mishedlo who wrote (26224)	3/24/2005 10:01:31 AM
From: kailuabruddah	Read Replies (6) \| Respond to of 116555

Vegas RE - A little change at the margin here? reviewjournal.com A high-rise luxury condominium project proposed on the site of the former Algiers motel appears to be "dead in the water," a local real estate industry source said Tuesday. Krystle Sands, a planned 45-story, 568-unit condominium hotel, is no longer offering units for sale and no forwarding number was given, said a Realtor who asked not to be identified. And many real estate experts believe it could be just the first of many of the 100 or so announced high-rise local projects to fail. Las Vegas can expect some turbulence in the condominium market, mirroring what has happened in Toronto, said a broker who's familiar with both markets. "Although Toronto's condo market is likely to come down from the stratosphere over the next few years, the correction should be relatively mild and short-lived, and represent a brief departure from an otherwise bright longer-term path," TD Bank Financial Group senior economist Derek Burleton wrote in an October 2004 report. During the 1980s housing expansion, condo starts in Toronto skyrocketed from "humble beginnings" to more than 13,000 units in 1989, the report said. It tailed off to less than 4,000 from 1991 to 1993, and then climbed again to 14,000 units in 2001 and 2003. "What followed during the 1990-93 period was a particularly painful experience for condo owners in Toronto. With sales barely registering on the radar screen during that four-year period, average resale prices of Toronto condominiums tumbled from $200,000 to $132,000 (Canadian), or roughly one-third," Burleton said.