Daily Commentary by Larry Baer: The National Association of Realtors announced this morning the pace of existing home sales unexpectedly fell 0.9% last month after posting a stronger-than-expected revised 5.7% gain in January. Even with February's slight drop, the average sales pace is running 4.0% faster in the three months ending in February than in the three months ending in November. Sales in January and February reflect the strongest two-month start in the past five years. Compared to this time one-year ago, existing home sales are up 8.8%. Distressed sales accounted for 34% of all transactions, with foreclosures representing 20% of this total and short sales making up the 14% balance. All cash-sales accounted for 33% of all transactions, up from 31% in January. Investors bought 23% of all homes, while first-time buyers accounted for 32% of the total sales figure. The outlook for existing home sales is brighter than it has been in years - but the housing recovery has a great deal of ground to cover, and it is proceeding at a very slow pace. Mortgage investors gave this data nothing more than a passing glance.
As they do every Wednesday, the Mortgage Bankers of America have released their Mortgage Application Survey for the week ended March 16th. The data shows overall mortgage application traffic fell 7.4% for the week. Refinance requests slipped 9.3% lower and purchase money requests were down 1.0%. Refinance requests represented 7-out-of-every-10 loan applications taken last week.
The contract rate for 30-year fixed-rate conforming mortgages finished at 4.19%, up 13 basis-points from the prior week, up 10 basis-points from four weeks ago, but down 72 basis-points from this same time period one-year ago.
THE MARKET IS ALWAYS RIGHT! . YOU AND I ARE SOME OF THE TIME
