Housing Starts up but Still at Low Level

MBA Mortgage Applications (week ended 4/11/2014)

– Purchase Index Week/Week +1.0%. Previous weeks were +3.0%, +1.0%, +3.0%, -1.0%, -1.0%, +9.0%, -4.0%, -6.0%, -5.0%, -4.0%, +2.0%, and -4.0%.

– Refinance Index Week/Week +7.0%. Previous weeks were -5.0%, -3.0%, -8.0%, -1.0%, -3.0%, +10.0%, -11.0%, -3.0%, -0.2%, +3.0%, and -2.0%.

– Composite Index Week/Week +4.3%. Previous weeks were -1.6%, -1.2%, -3.5%, -1.2%, -2.1%, +9.4%, -8.5%, -4.1%, -0.2%, +0.4%, and -0.2%.

Lower rates helped the refinance index.

Housing Starts (March 2014)

– Starts seasonally adjusted, annualized   946,000. Previous was 920,000

– Permits seasonally adjusted, annualized  990,000. Previous was 1,104,000

Housing Starts should be 1,500,000 to accommodate population growth and scrappage.

Industrial Production  (March 2014)

– Production month/month +0.7%. Previous was revised up from +0.6% to +1.2%.

– Capacity Utilization Rate  79.2%. Previous was 78.8%

– Manufacturing month/month  +0.5%

Industrial Production includes utilities which were driven by cold weather in the past few months.