Housing Snapshot - October 25, 2004 - 10/25/2004 - Mortgage Loan Refinance Debt Equity

Housing Snapshot - October 25, 2004

Mortgage applications to buy and refinance homes were up last week as interest rates for fixed-rate mortgages continued to decline. Adjustable-rate financing was up just a tad. The Labor Department reported that unemployment filings declined by a seasonally adjusted 25,000 at the end of last week. The Consumer Price Index for September rose 0.2%, bringing inflation for the first nine months of this year to 3.5% compared to 1.9% for all of last year. The new week opened with ongoing concerns about oil prices and with the dollar weakening. The Conference Board's Leading Economic Indicators fell 0.1% in September, the fourth consecutive monthly decline in that index, suggesting that the economic expansion has lost some of its momentum heading into the final quarter of the year. Lumber prices continued to offer encouraging news for the nation's home builders last week. Framing lumber prices dropped to $365 per 1,000 board feet, according to Random Lengths, down $13 from the prior week, but still up from $319 a year earlier. The price of 15/32-inch 3-ply Southern (west-east) exterior sheathing fell from $315 to $290 per 1,000 square-feet, compared to $535 a year earlier. Oriented strand board declined from $240 to $215, compared to $465 at the same point in 2003.