Purchase Applicions up week/week, down year/year

MBA Mortgage Applications (week ended 4/25/2014)

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

– Refinance Index Week/Week +2.0%. Previous weeks were -7.0%, -4.0%, +7.0%, -5.0%, -3.0%, -8.0%, -1.0%, -3.0%, +10.0%, -11.0%, and -3.0%.

– Composite Index Week/Week +5.3%. Previous weeks were -5.9%, -3.3%, +4.3%, -1.6%, -1.2%, -3.5%, -1.2%, -2.1%, +9.4%, -8.5%, and -4.1%.

While the strong improvement in Purchase Applications is a good sign Purchase Applications are -16% from a year ago.

Worker Productivity and Costs (1stQ2014)

– Nonfarm productivity quarter/quarter (seasonally adjusted, annualized) -1.7%. Previous was +2.3%

– Unit labor costs quarter/quarter (seasonally adjusted, annualized) +4.2%. Previous was -0.4%.

Productivity may have been affected by the continued winter weather. It’s hard to get to work when it snows.