MBA Mortgage Applications
The Mortgage Bankers Association today released its weekly mortgage applications survey data for the week ending May 16. The interesting takeaway is that while mortgage refinancing volume has shown a modestly positive response to falling rates (+4% week-over-week this week and +7% w/w in the previous week, but still down -66% year-over-year), mortgage purchase application volume continues to slide (-3% w/w this week and -1% w/w in the previous week and down -12.3% y/y).
Essentially, demand continues to slow and, remember, price growth follows the slope of demand.
In fact, the Corelogic early read on April showed home prices decelerated to +9.2% year-over-year versus their March reading of +11.1% year-over-year. This marked one of the steepest sequential decelerations (-190 bps) in years.
About MBA Mortgage Applications
The Mortgage Bankers’ Association’s mortgage applications index covers more than 75% of mortgage applications originated through retail and consumer direct channels. It does not include loans delivered through wholesale broker and correspondent channels. The MBA mortgage purchase applications index is considered a leading indicator of single-family home sales and construction. Moreover, it is the only housing index that is released on a weekly basis.
The MBA Purchase Apps index is released every Wednesday morning at 7 a.m. EST.
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Editor's Note: This is a brief excerpt of a research note that was originally sent to subscribers on May 21, 2014 at 8:14 a.m. EST by by Josh Steiner and Christian Drake from Hedgeye's Financials and Macro teams. Follow Josh & Christian on Twitter @HedgeyeFIG and @HedgeyeUSA.
