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Housing 'Recovery' Hope Humbled As Billings & Purchases Plunge

Following this morning's weak Starts and Permits data, even homebuilders are starting to lose faith in the recovery meme but there is a long way to go before that is priced in. Perhaps the follwoing two data points will help to wake up the rest of the investing public that all is not as well as hoped. For the 3rd week in a row mortgage applications for purchases slid (reflecting the 'now')...

 

and even more worrying, Architecture Billings tumbled into contraction (below 50) throwing doubt on the imminent future as the inquiry index plunged from 60.5 to 55.3.

 

Still, stocks are surging - led by homebuilders - so everything must be fine, right?