Free Republic

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. mortgage applications fell last week as interest rates hit their highest in over four years, an industry trade group said on Wednesday. ADVERTISEMENT The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity for the week ended June 23 decreased 6.7 percent to 529.6 from the previous week's 567.6. Borrowing costs on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, excluding fees, averaged 6.86 percent, up 0.13 percentage point from the previous week, its highest level since April 12, 2002 when it reached 6.92 percent. The MBA's seasonally adjusted purchase mortgage index fell 6.2 percent to 389.0....

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The tell-tale sign of a stagnating real estate market? When homes for sale start lingering - and that's exactly what real estate brokers and other industry watchers say they're seeing now. The National Association of Realtors does not maintain national time-on-market figures. But inventory - the number of homes for sale - spiked 37 percent for the 12 months through April 30, the most recent data available. Homes are staying on the shelf longer. Languishing in hot markets There are no official regional statistics for the time homes spend on the market. Here are estimates for...

ForeclosuresMass.com said today that May foreclosure filings against Massachusetts homeowners have more than doubled, a trend that is accelerating as the housing market slows and mortgage rates increase. ForeclosuresMass.com, which tracks monthly filings by financial institutions against homeowners in the state's Land Court, said there were 1,613 filings last month, compared with 788 in May 2005. "That's over 50 a day every day of the month," said Derek Beckwith, spokesman. The biggest increases occurred in Barnstable County on Cape Cod, 96 in May 2006, up from 32 in May 2005; Suffolk County, 171, up from 71; and Bristol County, 143,...