Each day the Research staff takes a look at recently released economic indicators, addressing what these indicators mean for REALTORS® and their clients. Today’s update highlights mortgage purchase applications.

  • Interest rates on 30-year fixed mortgages continued to decline during the week ending August 12, from 4.37 to 4.32 percent.
  • Mortgage applications rose 4.1 percent, with refinancings gaining 8.0 percent and purchases declining 9.1 percent.
  • Cash purchases—not covered by the mortgage data—accounted for 30.0 percent of transactions in June.
  • In a separate report, producer prices for finished goods rose 0.2 percent in July from the previous month and 7.2 percent from last year. Core prices, for goods other than food and energy, the trend has been upward.  For July, core prices moved up 0.4 percent from June.
  • Noticeably, producer prices for intermediate and crude goods rose 11.6 percent and 22.6 percent, respectively, from a year ago.  Such high inflation on producer prices has not been passed along to consumer prices, but it could if the trend continues.  The all-important consumer prices are projected to rise by 4 to 5 percent by the year-end.

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