Weekly Jobless Claims, which is a report that represents the number of American workers who filed for unemployment benefits the previous week, dropped another 8,000 to a strong 207,000. Jobless claims are now nearing 49-year lows. Low unemployment levels point to higher economic growth.
Mortgage applications for home purchases increased slightly across the US by 0.1%. Mortgage application volume is now 3% higher than this time last year! This is a good sign of strong demand since there is increased mortgage applications on homes that have appreciated by about 5.5% on average across the country, since August 2017, based on CoreLogic reporting. This also points to strong housing demand, because this is also occurring in a higher interest rate environment.
Joel Kan, Mortgage Bankers Association Economist said, “Short-term rates have been increasing, but long-term rates have held somewhat steady, which should not pose too much of a headwind to home purchase activity, especially given the potential demand”
Owning a home is still one of the best ways to generate personal wealth.
Sources:
http://bit.ly/2RChUsT
http://bit.ly/2ybBBPX
By: Jon Iacono