MBA: February New Home Purchase Mortgage Apps Up 3%
Mortgage Bankers Association Builder Application Survey data for February show mortgage applications for new home purchases increased by 3 percent from January and by 4.6 percent from a year ago.
By product type, conventional loans composed 70.8 percent of loan applications, FHA loans composed 15.7 percent, RHS/USDA loans composed 1.1 percent and VA loans composed 12.4 percent. The average loan size of new homes decreased from $338,918 in January to $338,078 in February. Results do not include adjustments for typical seasonal patterns.
“Mortgage applications for new homes continued to grow in February on a year over year basis, although at a slower pace of just under 5 percent, as brisk activity in January likely pulled forward some buyer activity,” said MBA Vice President of Research and Economics Lynn Fisher. “Combined, applications in January and February were up by 11 percent relative the same period last year.”
MBA estimated new single-family home sales at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 632,000 units in February, based on data from the BAS, a decrease of 9.7 percent from the January pace of 700,000 units. On an unadjusted basis, MBA estimated 55,000 new home sales in February, an increase of 1.9 percent from 54,000 new home sales in January.
“On a seasonally adjusted annual basis, our February estimate of new home sales based on mortgage applications came in at 632,000, ahead of the January Census estimate of 593,000 new homes sales, and back on trend following an uptick from hurricane-related rebuilding,” Fisher said.
The new home sales estimate is derived using mortgage application information from the BAS, as well as assumptions regarding market coverage and other factors.
The MBA Builder Application Survey tracks application volume from mortgage subsidiaries of home builders across the country. Using these data, as well as data from other sources, MBA provides an early estimate of new home sales volumes at the national, state and metro level. These data also provide information regarding types of loans used by new home buyers. Official new home sales estimates are conducted by the Census Bureau on a monthly basis. In those data, new home sales are recorded at contract signing, which is typically coincident with the mortgage application.
For additional information on MBA’s Builder Applications Survey, click https://www.mba.org/news-research-and-resources/forecasts-data-and-reports/single-family-research/servicing-operations-study-and-forum-for-prime-and-specialty-servicers-x75411.
