From Reuters:
Home loan demand drops as rates hit 4-year high
U.S. mortgage applications fell last week as interest rates hit their highest in over four years, an industry trade group said on Wednesday.
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.
The purchase index, which is considered a timely gauge of U.S. home sales, was substantially below its year-ago level of 477.4.
The group’s seasonally adjusted index of refinancing applications decreased 7.5 percent to 1,356.0. A year earlier the index stood at 2,529.2.
Tinton Falls approves revaluation funding, awards contract
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 06/28/06
BY KEITH BROWN
COASTAL MONMOUTH BUREAU
TINTON FALLS — The Borough Council at a special meeting Tuesday adopted a $500,000 bond ordinance to pay for a townwide property revaluation and awarded a contract to a West New York company to conduct it.
The vote for the bond ordinance, which followed a public hearing during which no member of the public spoke, was unanimous. No council member commented before the vote.
The vote allowed the council to pass a resolution later in the meeting awarding a contract worth $480,000 to Realty Appraisal Company, of West New York, to conduct the revaluation.
The deadline for the revaluation to be completed is Oct. 1. But, according to chief financial officer Stephen Pfeffer, the first tax bill to include the new property values won’t come until August 2007.
The company, which has conducted borough revaluations three times dating back to 1978, was the sole company to answer solicitations for bids to conduct the revaluation, Mayor Peter Maclearie said.
Borough property has not been assessed since 1989. The average assessed value of a home in Tinton Falls is $152,005, according to 2005 figures.
Last month, angry residents from the upscale Willowbrook neighborhood off Swimming River Road pleaded with the council to expedite the revaluation, saying their homes are overvalued and that is driving up their property tax bills.
“We’re moving on this as lightning quick as we can,” Maclearie has said.
Willowbrook residents who attended a May 3 council meeting said they pay an average of $20,000 in property taxes annually.
“If I’m living next to Bon Jovi on the Navesink, I’m happy to pay it,” Willowbrook resident Paul Cella, of Sire Stakes Drive, has said.
Those look like some pretty big drops in mortgage apps.
And does this mean that people are not applying for July mortgages?
It would be interesting to see a month to month thing on mortgage applications.
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