U.S. MBA’s Mortgage Applications Index Decreased 2.9% Last Week
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mortgage applications March 19th, 2008March 19 (Bloomberg) — Mortgage applications in the U.S. decreased for the fifth time in the last six weeks, led by a slump in refinancing.
The Mortgage Bankers Association’s index of applications to buy a home or refinance a loan fell 2.9 percent last week to 652, the lowest level of the year, from 671.1 a week earlier. The group’s refinancing gauge dropped 4.6 percent, while the purchase index declined 1 percent.
Filings weakened even as rates on fixed mortgages fell, signaling lending restrictions and the prospect of bigger declines in property values are keeping potential homeowners away. Federal Reserve policy makers are struggling to prevent the real estate slump, now in its third year, from tipping the economy into a recession.
Housing “is going to remain very weak,” Ryan Sweet, an economist at Moody’s Economy.com in West Chester, Pennsylvania, said before the report. “House prices are going to decline across the country, banks are tightening lending standards and all these factors are going to continue to weigh on housing.”
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