"NOYB" wrote in message
news
"I am pleased our associates achieved record quarterly sales and
earnings,"
said company president and chief executive Lee Scott.


Uh oh. Wallmarts numbers ain't gonna be so good next quarter if the
mortgage refinancings that've put $ in people's pockets keep dropping
precipitously.

By Richard Leong
Reuters
Wednesday, August 13, 2003; 9:23 AM


NEW YORK - The number of applications Americans filed for mortgage loans
dropped last week to its lowest level in more than a year, even as mortgage
rates subsided from their recent spike, according to an industry survey.

The Mortgage Bankers Association of America said on Wednesday its seasonally
adjusted gauge of overall mortgage requests fell to 824.6 for the week ended
Aug. 8, down 16.1 percent from the previous week's 983.2.

The group's weekly barometer of mortgage demand fell to its lowest level
since 815.2 for the week of July 19, 2002.

Although overall mortgage demand remains high on a historical basis, the
previously red-hot level of refinancing, which has put money into consumers'
pockets, has cooled rapidly. Applications for refinancing made up 55.8
percent of all new requests filed last week, down from 72.1 percent a month
ago.

"We are on the downside, but it (refinancing) has not gone away completely,"
Mortgage Bankers Association's chief economist Douglas Duncan told Reuters.

Duncan estimated that the refinancing boom will be over when the weekly
share of refinancing applications falls to about 20 percent to 25 percent of
all new applications.

The recent rise in mortgage rates has hit refinancing -- down 67.5 percent
since its peak in May -- much harder than demand for loans to buy homes,
down around 10 percent.