By Trey Garrison | HousingWire
The tepid growth in the job market and in the economy as a whole seems to be reflected in the mortgage lending space.
The widely followed measure of mortgage applications for home purchases put out by the Mortgage Bankers Association has shown tentative signs of improvement over the past six months, but research firm Capital Economics notes that it is still well below the levels seen in mid-2013.
“And the bigger picture is that it has done little but move sideways over the past five years. With the Fed set to begin raising interest rates later this year, there must be a risk that confidence among homebuyers will prove fragile, thus delaying further a meaningful upturn,” writes Paul Stansfield, chief property economist for Capital Economics, in a client note.
Wage growth and economic growth combined have brought secular stagnation, says Anthony Sanders, distinguished professor of finance at George Mason University.
