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Housing Snapshot
Last week was a good time to buy a home, with mortgage interest rates at their lowest levels since early and mid July. And home sales were brisk, with the Mortgage Bankers Association reporting that the volume of mortgages to purchase a home hit a new record high. On the job front, which remains a source of concern even amidst convincing evidence that the economic expansion has at long last moved into a period of healthy growth, new applications for unemployment insurance fell during the week ending Jan. 17 for the second week in a row. News from the lumber markets, however, was disappointing. According to Random Lengths, the price of framing lumber continued to advance, rising to $354 per 1,000 board feet. Prices for both 15/32-inch 3-ply CDX Southern Westside plywood and OSB seem to be moving up quickly from lows reached towards the end of last year. The former rose to $420 per 1,000 square feet, compared to $240 a year earlier, and the latter, which sold for $169 a year earlier, jumped to $400. 
| Mortgage Interest Rates |
| 30-Year Fixed-Rate |
5.64% |
| 15-Year Fixed-Rate |
4.95% |
| 1-Year ARM |
3.56% |
| Housing Starts - Dec. 2003* |
| Total |
2.088 million |
| Single-Family Starts |
1.664 million |
| Multifamily Starts |
397,000 |
New Home Sales
Nov. 2003* |
1.082 million |
Existing Home Sales
Nov. 2003* |
6.06 million |
| * Seasonally adjusted annual rate |
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