Good morning! Today is Thursday, March 26. Stock futures fell as investors anticipate jobless claims that could jump into the millions amid the coronavirus pandemic. Coronavirus deaths in the U.S. top 1,000. The Senate approved a $2 trillion stimulus package. Apple may delay the launch of the 5G iPhone.
And in mortgage and housing news …
SO IT BEGINS: Mortgage applications dropped 29.4 percent last week from a week earlier, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey. MBA’s refinance index dropped 34 percent for the week, though was still 195 percent higher than the same week a year earlier.
PRICE INDEX: House prices in the United States rose 5.2 percent in January over a year earlier, continuing a string of strong housing economic reports from early this year. The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s House Price Index also showed house prices increased 0.3 percent over the previous month.
STIMULUS: What the $2 trillion stimulus package means for housing. The bill focuses on mortgage payment forbearance, evictions and foreclosures stops on properties with federally backed loans.
CALIFORNIA: Big banks offer mortgage relief to California homeowners facing coronavirus crisis.
INSECURITY: Risky U.S. mortgages face reckoning in market spooked by coronavirus
FIRE SALE: The Royal Bank of Canada moved to unload hundreds of millions of dollars worth of commercial real-estate debt seized from clients in recent days, trying to protect itself from pain spreading through the mortgage market.
APPRAISALS: The coronavirus fallout is indirectly spurring home appraisals.
COMMUNITY: It’s not just staying home—it’s about making choices that enable other people around you to stay home and healthy.