Real Estate & Market Report: October 16, 2015 – Sometimes it just does not make sense to try and figure out the movement of the stock market.

• The market has limited movements on some days and major jumps or declines the next.
• The market, which was quiet for most of the week, jumped 217 points on Thursday to the best levels since August.
• The rise was related to better than expected earnings reports from companies in the financial sector.
• The end of the year market rally seems to be picking up steam.

Only time will tell but for now investors are reaping the benefits of the markets upward trajectory.

The major economic reports for the week were released on Wednesday and Thursday.

• In the housing sector, the Mortgage Bankers Association of America reported that mortgage applications plummeted for the week ending October 9th.
• You may recall that the prior week applications soared as mortgage and real estate professionals did everything possible to get applications submitted before the implementation of the new lending disclosures.
• The MBA reported that purchase applications plummeted 34 percent while refinance applications declined 23 percent.
• T hese drops essentially eliminated the previous week’s gains of 27 percent and 24 percent respectively.

Next week significant housing reports are due, which will give a more accurate perspective on what is happening.

• The report on housing starts will be released on Tuesday and the data on existing home sales will be reported on Thursday.

In other news, the latest data indicates that inflation continues to virtually non-existent therefore pressure for the Fed to raise rates continues to be low.

• The consumer price index for the month of September showed inflation at 1.9 percent.
• When you remove volatile food and energy prices inflation at the consumer level was up only 0.2 percent.
• Prices on the wholesale level also confirmed that there is little upward pressure on prices.

In what may be a sign of consumer confidence deteriorating, retail sales for the month of September declined an unexpected 0.3 percent.

• Analysts were expecting sales to remain flat.
• With the economic uncertainty in abundance in the media, it appears that consumers are electing to keep money in their wallets for the time being.

To finish this week’s newsletter on a positive note, the first time jobless claims for the week ending October 10th, claims continue to remain at historic lows.

• Claims were reported at 255K, which was a drop of 7,000 from the prior week.

Next week’s potential market moving reports are:

Monday October 19th – Housing Market Index

Tuesday October 20th – Housing Starts

Wednesday October 21st – MBA Mortgage Applications

Thursday October 22nd – First Time Jobless Claims & Existing Home SalesFriday October 23rd – PMI Manufacturing Index

As your mortgage professional, I am happy to assist you with any information you may need regarding mortgage or real estate trends. I welcome the opportunity to serve you in any way I possibly can. Please feel free to reach me at (661) 505-4300.