Existing Home Sales up. Mortgage Applications down.

MBA Mortgage Applications (Week ended 8/16/2013)

– Purchase Index Week/Week +1.0%. Previous weeks were -5.0%, +1.0%, -3.0%, -2.0%, +1.0%, 3.0%, -3.0%, +2.0%.

– Refinance Index Week/Week -8.0%. Previous weeks were -4.0%, +0.0%, -4.0%, +1.0%, -4.0%, -4.0%, and -16.0%.

– Composite Index Week/Week -4.6%. Previous weeks were -4.7%, +0.2%, -3.7%, -1.2%, -2.6%, -4.0%, and -11.7%.

The level of refinancing is 62% lower than its peak.  The decrease in refinancing is a direct consequence of higher rates.  The Purchase Index still shows a flattening in demand.

Existing Home Sales (July 2013)

– Existing Home Sales (Seasonally adjusted, annualized) 5,390.000.  Previous level was 5,060,000. This is the highest level since November 2009.

So the conclusion is that sales are up and mortgage applications down.  The mortgage data comes from the Mortgage Bankers Association. Existing Home Sales comes from the National Association of Realtors.  Sales should lag applications.  The decrease in mortgage applications over the past few weeks should contain the Existing Home Sales for August.

The force driving market today will be the FOMC minutes at 11:00 AM PDT.  Equity markets have been on a PED known as QE.  Eventually they will suffer withdrawal symptoms.