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Egan: Mortgage apps won't rise til unemployment addressed
MARLBOROUGH, Mass. (3/18/10)--The slide in U.S. home loans last week despite low mortgage rates suggests it will take some time before housing industry recovers. Dan Egan, president of three credit union leagues, agrees, reports Reuters (March 17).
The Mortgage Bankers Association index of purchase and refinance applications fell last week by a seasonally adjusted 1.9% to a three-week low-- despite the fact interest rates were at the lowest in more than three months, said Reuters. Bad winter weather was a factor.
After a burst of housing demand last year, "the continuation of the [federal] tax credit [for homebuyers] was supposed to spur continued sales into 2010, and it just doesn't seem at this point to have done that," Egan told the publication.
He is president of the Massachusetts Credit Union League, the New Hampshire Credit Union League and the Credit Union Association of Rhode Island.
"Not only are people unemployed but people are concerned about future employment," Egan said. "Until that really gets addressed, I don't think we'll see a significant rise in mortgage applications."
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