Housing Weakening As Evidenced By Mortgage Bankers Association

Housing is softening rather quickly. A quote from the Mortgage Bankers Association Press Release - Weekly Application Survey follows.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 2, 2006) — The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending July 28. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 527.6, a decrease of 1.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 533.8 one week earlier. This is the lowest that the index has been since May 2002. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 1.4 percent compared with the previous week but was down 29.0 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

Weaker housing is a significant headwind.