Existing-home sales, including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, were down 2.0 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.93 million units in March from a level of 5.03 million in February, and remain 19.3 percent below the 6.11 million-unit pace in March 2007, the National Association of Realtors said. Regionally, sales rose in the Northeast and West but fell in the Midwest and South, NAR noted.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBAA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending April 18, 2008.  The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decrease 14.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier.  On an unadjusted basis was down 3.2 percent compared with the same week one year earlier. Refinancings also decreased. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 6.04 percent from 5.74 percent, with points decreasing to 1.040 from 1.05 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans. 

Although loan defaults on commercial properties remain at low levels, the credit crunch in the real estate markets will still have some negative impact on commercial property values. In many instances, property values will decline because the lenders financing commercial property purchases will demand higher yields on their loans than they did when property prices soared between 1993 and 2006, the MBAA said. The group said the feds are likely to limit securitization of loans going forward, in order to prevent the kinds of credit-market problems now extant.