Applications for New Home Purchases Fall Again in MBA Builder Survey
Mortgage Bankers Association Builder Application Survey data for August show mortgage applications for new home purchases fell for the second consecutive month, dropping by 6 percent from July.
The change does not include any adjustment for typical seasonal patterns.
By product type, conventional loans composed 68.5 percent of loan applications, FHA loans composed 19.0 percent, RHS/USDA loans composed 0.9 percent and VA loans composed 11.6 percent. The average loan size of new homes increased from $316,995 in July to $317,035 in August.
“As the summer winds down, mortgage applications for new homes saw a seasonally driven decrease in August,” said MBA Vice President of Research and Economics Lynn Fisher. “However, applications for new homes were still up 19 percent relative to the same month last year, which is consistent with what we’ve seen so far in 2015.”
MBA estimated new single-family home sales ran at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 524,000 units in August, a 1.9 percent decrease from July (534,000). On an unadjusted basis, MBA estimated 41,000 new home sales in August, a decrease of 6.8 percent from 44,000 new home sales in July.
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.
