Posted on 11/21/2012 10:36:08 AM PST by whitedog57
According to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), mortgage applications dropped 2.2% from the previous week. Mortgage purchases applications rose 2.66% while refinancing applications fell by 3.24%.
Purchase applications remain in “the red zone” since 2010 and far below the heady days of 2007.
Those are the seasonally adjusted numbers. On a non seasonally adjusted basis, purchase applications actually fell 11.27% and refinancing applications fells 12.91%.
Low mortgage rates enable by Fed easing are of little help if credit standards remain elevated.
And a stumbling employment market doesn’t help. Initial jobless claims remain above 400k.
While there is a temptation to blame the +400k reading on Superstore Sandy, one has to acknowledge the number of firms either closing plants or switching from full-time to part-time jobs to evade Obamacare mandates.
The good news today is that Flash PMI (Manufacturing) rose in November to 52.4.
(Excerpt) Read more at confoundedinterest.wordpress.com ...
So far I’ve been able to document over 95,000 laid off since the election.
That doesn’t count anyone from any company too small to fall under WARN act requirements.
That doesn’t count anyone from the scores of restaurants and boutiques that have closed since then. For some reason they are only reported as store closings, with no enumeration of lost jobs.
I wouldn’t be the slightest bit surprised to find the 400,000 number is low.
Is a “rut” anything like a “malaise”?
Amazing what you can do with an adequate amount of fairy dust.
How about “Hostess” the “TWINKIE” loss?
It’s in there. Hostess being large enough to fall under WARN act requirements.
Yes, I think so. I know I've been in both since Election Day.
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