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Applications to buy and refinance homes dropped last week, an industry trade group said Wednesday, the latest sign that U.S. housing remains mired in a downturn.
The drop in applications piled on to reports from the country's builders and the government this week suggesting any sustained housing rebound could be next year's business.
Housing starts fell more than 2 percent in May as builders grappled with a stockpile of unsold homes, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.
Sentiment among home builders sank to its weakest level this month in more than 16 years, based on an index reported Monday by the National Association of Home Builders. The group expects building and sales will keep eroding until late this year before starting to recover in 2008.
Wednesday, the MBA's seasonally adjusted purchase index fell 3.0 percent to 450.9 while its refinancing applications index shed 4.2 percent to 1,776.8 on a seasonally adjusted basis.
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