delayed reaction apps pop

I've been talking about the Mortgage Bankers Association's purchase application index quite a bit -- it's a good leading indicator of home sales, and since it comes out every week, it's as close to a real-time snapshot of the market as you can get.

In the most recent week, it looks like we got a delayed reaction to the drop in interest rates in late October. Purchase apps popped 7.1% on the week, while refis increased 11%. That said, the longer-term trend is down-to-sideways, and we're well off the levels of a year ago (402.20 vs. 465.70 in the same week of 2005, or -13.6%). So it helps to keep the big picture in perspective.