Real Estate Roundup

Loan applications decline 3 percent

The Mortgage Bankers Association has released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending March 14. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 652, a decrease of 2.9 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 671.7 one week earlier.

On an unadjusted basis, the index decreased 2.8 percent compared with the previous week and was down 3.7 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

Habitat store seeks resale donations

Habitat for Humanity of Greater Chattanooga’s ReStore is doing a spring donation drive through April 22.

Donations of usable building materials, hardware and tools will be accepted at the Hixson and Gunbarrel Road locations of Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouses from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday and then on April 5, 12 and 19.

ReStore sells donated building materials, hardware and other home repair and improvement items at discount prices to support Habitat’s work of building affordable homes for Chattanooga families.

Donations of building materials are accepted at ReStore from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday, at 1201 E. Main St. To arrange a pick-up of a donation or for more information, call 634-1004 or visit www.habichatt.org.

Home sales down 21 percent in South

The number of closed sales in the South fell 20.6 percent in February 2008 from a year ago, according to The Real Trends Housing Market Report.

The average sales price of a house sold in February was down 3.3 percent. Nationally, sales were down 21.6 percent and the average sales price was down 3.5 percent. The West experienced the biggest drop in sales, at 28.4 percent.

The analysis used data from real estate brokers representing more than 35 percent of all home sales in the nation. Real Trends has been a provider of trends and research data for the residential real estate industry for 20 years. The company provides its data to real estate executives, brokers and agents.