Real Average Weekly Earnings Fall

Real average hourly earnings fell 0.1 percent from August to September, seasonally adjusted, the Bureauof Labor Statistics reported today.

This decline stemmed from the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W), up by 0.2 percent, outpacing 0.1 percent growth in average hourly earnings for production and nonsupervisory workers.

Real average weekly earnings fell 0.4 percent over the month, as a result of the decrease in real average hourly earnings and a 0.3 percent decrease in the average work week. Since reaching a recent high point in December 2008, real average weekly earnings have fallen by 1.9 percent.

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4 Week Average of Unemployment Claims Drops (Chart)

The 4 week moving average of initial claims for unemployment dropped to 606,000 versus 616,000 a week ago. The 4 week average has been over 600,000 since February, 2009.



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Mortgage Applications Increase 708

Market Highlights

• The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 493.1, an increase of 10.9 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 444.8 one week earlier.
• The Refinance Index increased 15.2 percent to 1707.7 from 1482.2 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 6.7 percent to 285.6 from 267.7 one week earlier.
• The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is down 5.6 percent.
• The four week moving average is up 1.4 percent for the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index, while this average is down 10.9 percent for the Refinance Index.
• The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 48.4 percent of total applications from 46.4 percent the previous week.
• The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages remained unchanged at 5.34 percent, with points increasing to 1.13 from 1.12 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans.
• The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 4.83 percent from 4.81 percent, with points increasing to 1.06 from 1.04 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

Source: Mortgage Bankers Association

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Bob DeMarco is a citizen journalist and twenty year Wall Street veteran. Bob has written more than 500 articles with more than 11,000 links to his work on the Internet. Content from All American Investor has been syndicated on Reuters, the Wall Street Journal, Fox News, Pluck, Blog Critics, and a growing list of newspaper websites. Bob is actively seeking syndication and writing assignments.

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