existing home sales

The Week In Review (May 21, 2007) : What To Watch For

May 21, 2007

Mortgage rates moved substantially higher last week as traders reacted to Thursday’s Initial Jobless Claims. The amount of new unemployment filing dropped below 4-week trend line is now at its lowest levels in a year. Fewer unemployment claims coupled with increasing employee wages raised fears of inflation and inflation nearly always pushes mortgage rates higher. […]

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Builders May Be Figuring Out The Market Faster Than Home Sellers

April 25, 2007

According to all of the headlines, existing home sales are down across the country.  Way down.  Check out this sampling: Sales of Existing Homes Plunge Steeply (NY Times) Existing Home Sales Plunge In March (Houston Chronicle) Existing Home Sales Plunge, Biggest Retreat In 18 Years (Salt Lake Tribune) However, it’s important to keep these statistics […]

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The Week In Review (April 23, 2007) : What To Watch For

April 23, 2007

The economy showed signs of pushing forward last week, but major pressure on the average American consumer surfaced in the form of rising gas prices. Overall, it was a mixed bag for mortgage markets. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) jumped 0.6% last month.  This cost of living increase was much larger than expected and mostly […]

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The Week In Review (March 19, 2007) : What To Watch For

March 19, 2007

Sub-prime mortgage news dominated the headlines this past week as the Chicken Littles were out in full force.  Perhaps the fears of a credit crunch are overblown, but then again, perhaps there’s reason to worry. Like everything else in the world of economics, it all comes down to expectations. Markets makes predictions about the future […]

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Existing Home Sales Data is Weak, But Traders Find Strength

January 25, 2007

Existing Home Sales showed weaker-than-expected numbers this morning, but that hasn’t stopped the slide in mortgage-backed securities.  This is a counter-intuitive movement so let’s take a deeper look. First, the supply of homes dropped from 7.3 months to 6.8 months.  With less supply, there is a tendency for home values to stabilize and that is […]

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The Week In Review (January 22, 2007) : What To Watch For

January 22, 2007

Last week, economic data showed that the economy continues to grow at a healthy pace and that last year’s fears of an economic recession may have been overblown; wholesale and consumer prices were up 1.1% and 2.5% annually, respectively. With no clear recessionary indicators present in the market, long-term mortgages such as the 30-year fixed […]

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