MBA: February New Home Applications Increase
Mortgage Bankers Association Builder Application Survey data for February show mortgage applications for new home purchases increased by 24 percent from January.
The change does not include any adjustment for typical seasonal patterns.
By product type, conventional loans composed 67.7 percent of loan applications, FHA loans composed 18.7 percent, RHS/USDA loans composed 0.8 percent and VA loans composed 12.8 percent. The average loan size of new homes increased from $325,806 in January to $328,370 in February.
“Mortgage applications to homebuilder affiliates increased across the board in our survey for February as continued low interest rates and fairly mild weather helped to kick off the spring buying season,” said MBA Vice President of Research and Economics Lynn Fisher.
MBA estimated new single-family home sales at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 544,000 units in February, an increase of 9 percent from the January pace of 499,000 units. On an unadjusted basis, MBA estimated 47,000 new home sales in February, an increase of 23.7 percent from 38,000 new home sales in January.
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.
