- It's notoriously difficult to read anything into the weekly mortgage applications report from the MBA, as a weather event or timing of a holiday can throw things off.
- Instead checking the year-over-year figures over a period of several weeks, Seeking Alpha contributor Markos Kaminis finds purchase applications averaging 20% growth so far in 2016, including a 25% Y/Y gain for the latest reported period.
- A check of the price charts of a number of housing-related stocks - homebuilders, title companies, mortgage insurers - paints a far more depressing picture of real estate, and suggests investors may have a buying opportunity at hand.
- Notable tickers: XHB, ITB, PHM, TOL, MTG, RDN, ITIC, FAF, FNF