We asked this question a quarter ago [6]following the quarterly results by Wells Fargo - America's biggest mortgage lender - but we never got an appropriate answer. So now that the data has been updated for the latest Wells mortgage origination and application numbers, we ask the question again: considering both mortgage originations and applications are crashing to levels not seen since the Lehman crisis, just what is wrong with this "housing recovery" picture?
Mortgage originations:
[7]
Mortgage applications:
[8]
And a bonus chart: remember when in late 2013 and early 2014 the pundits (probably the same ones who said it was a "stock picker's market") were screeching daily how bank Net Interest Margins were set to soar. Can they please comment on the following Wells NIM chart?
[9]
Source: Wells Fargo [10] [10]