Mortgage Applications

...Applications for new mortgages to buy houses were up by more than 7 percent last week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's national survey -- up 2.3 percent for those seeking conventional loans and up an amazing 19.2 percent for buyers planning to use FHA financing.As the saying goes: Follow the money. There's something important stirring out there. Home prices are at 2004 levels in many markets. Buyers who can qualify are seeing real, tangible opportunities….and that dynamic, along with help from the stimulus package, should begin turning around housing even before the economy as a whole.Published: January 13, 2009 / Realty Times / Kenneth Harney