Loan applications increase 4 percent

The Mortgage Bankers Association has released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending June 27. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 477.7, an increase of 3.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 461.3 one week earlier.

On an unadjusted basis, the index increased 3.2 percent compared with the previous week and was down 22.8 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

Area homes at low risk of falling prices

PMI Mortgage Insurance Co. has released its Summer 2008 U.S. Market Risk Index, which ranks metropolitan statistical areas according to the likelihood that home prices will be lower in two years.

Chattanooga has a 1.1 percent chance that prices will be lower in the first quarter of 2010, meaning the metro area has a low risk of falling prices.

In general, risk continued to intensify in many of the MSAs where home price growth had significantly exceeded historical norms during the housing boom, but continued to decline in many other areas across the country.

The highest risk of future price declines remains in Riverside, Calif., 95.5 percent. The areas with the lowest risk of price declines are in Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas and Dallas, both at less than a 1 percent chance.

The Summer 2008 Risk Index is based on first-quarter Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight data.

Efficient upgrades to homes in demand

Thirty-three percent of remodelers are seeing more demand by clients to improve the energy efficiency of homes, according to a National Association of Home Builders’ quarterly Remodeling Market Index.

The RMI measures remodeler perceptions of market demand for current and future residential remodeling projects. The survey cites rising energy costs as the reason for the growing demand for efficiency.

According to the survey: 73 percent of remodelers installed more energy-efficient windows; 65 percent made upgrades like replacing insulation and spraying foam into enclosed walls; 56 percent installed high-efficiency HVAC systems; 47 percent installed efficient kitchen appliances; and 46 percent installed watersaving faucets and fixtures.

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