A relatively quiet week so far, as European concerns moderated slightly earlier this week. Here at home, we saw a jump in Mortgage Applications for week ending June 8th. Applications increased 18% in week over week numbers according to MBA’s weekly index. The increase was driven by another round of historically low interest rates. Refinancing jumped 19.2% for the week, and now accounts for 79% of all mortgage transactions. Purchase numbers were up 12.8% for the week, as consumers enjoyed additional credit savings in the marketplace.

The economy still faces additional headwinds here at home, supported further by the weaker than expected Retail Sales report from Wednesday. Domestic weakness, coupled with European uncertainty continues to provide fertile ground for improving housing fundamentals here in the triangle.

All eyes are on the Fed Meeting which will occur next week. Will we see any concrete movement on policy easing come from the Fed in the near future? Many economists think so, but we’ll have to be patient.

Tomorrow I’ll be interviewing Jenn Nowalk from Homes by Dickerson here in the Triangle. She’ll be providing some anecdotal evidence as to how Triangle New Home Sales are trending for the first half of 2012.