Second Home Mortgage
30-Year Mortgage Rates Dip Again, to 6.63%
Mortgage rates around the country dipped for the second week in a row, a dose of encouraging news for people thinking about buying a home.
Mortgage company Freddie Mac, in its weekly survey released Thursday, said that rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages dropped to a nationwide average of 6.63 percent for the week ended Aug. 2. That was down from the previous week's rate of 6.72 percent and was the lowest since mid-June.
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Is it Time to Buy US Homebuilder Shares?
Gary Dorsch (Global Money Trends) submits: More home builders are cutting their 2006 profit outlooks as second-quarter orders for new homes have come down significantly from a year ago. Housing stocks have crashed from the stratosphere, as traders focused on earnings warnings and lower new-home sales in June. Pulte Homes (PHM), one of the nation's largest builders, on July 26th, said its profit fell 20% and lowered its 2006 outlook.
Unsold New homes equal a record 6.1 months of supply, and existing US homes are stagnating at 6.8 months of supply. New home sales were 11.1% lower in June from a year ago, but prices are still 2% higher on average at $231,000. The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity, which includes both refinancing and purchasing loans, for the week ended July 28 fell 1.2% to the 528-level, it's lowest since May 2002.