Mortgage demand tumbles, lowest since August  27/12/2006

Mortgage applications plummeted last week to the lowest level in nearly five months, dragged down by a plunge in demand for home refinancing loans as interest rates nudged higher, an industry trade group said Wednesday.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity, which includes both refinancing and purchasing loans, for the week ended Dec. 22 decreased 14.2% to 555.8, its lowest level since early August.

Borrowing costs on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, excluding fees, averaged 6.12%, up 0.02 percentage point from the previous week. Three weeks prior, 30-year mortgage rates sank to 5.98%, the lowest level since October 2005...

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GEAB N°65 - Contents

- Published on May 16, 2012 -

Global systemic crisis / Second half of 2012 – Convergence of four explosive factors: Banks-Stock Exchanges-Pensions-Debts
Whilst waiting for Euroland to equip itself, by the end of 2012, with a medium to long term common political, economic and social project, especially following the election of the new French president François Hollande, anticipated many months ago by LEAP/E2020, players will remain prisoners of the short-term reflexes related to the sudden Greek political tremors, the uncertainties over Euroland governance and to the risks in public debts… (page 2)
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Which languages must your child learn to be useful to him in twenty years ? Anticipation of the principal intra-European and world common languages in a 2030 timframe
Beyond its cultural interest LEAP/E2020 has created this anticipation as a tool to aid decision-making, individual (parents for the education of their children) as much as collective (public education institutions, universities, states, international businesses). Individual and joint strategies as regards language teaching are long term processes needing fundamental choices to be made almost a generation in advance… (page 11)
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Strategic and operational recommendations
. Currencies-Gold: Stay on course
. Pensions: Preserving one’s capital
. Stock Exchanges: Last exit before chaos
. Banks: Maximum distrust
. Government bonds: The trap is closing (page 21)
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The GlobalEurometre - Results & Analysis
The majority of respondents believing that their country’s major banks could go bankrupt by the end of 2012 has risen to 66% this month (versus 61% last month)… (page 23)
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