How the hell have mortgage conditions gotten ‘better’?
I think they meant in the very short -term. From the initial panic in August-September to now. Remember, at the initial stages of the panic many programs stopped and getting a loan funded at all was very difficult. Jumbos were well over 1 point higher than conventional. Over time, various loan programs seem to have come back on line and the spread between Jumbos and conforming is closer to 0.5%.
So, basically they are saying that sales have improved slightly from a pretty horrendous rate. Note that even at this slightly higher sales rate that sales are less than they were at this time in 2001, in the months after 9/11.
