MBA: November New Home Purchase Mortgage Apps Down 6%
The Mortgage Bankers Association said November mortgage applications for new home purchases decreased by 6 percent from October but increased by 12.2 percent from a year ago.
The MBA Builder Applications Survey data for November said by product type, conventional loans composed 71.4 percent of loan applications, FHA loans composed 15.2 percent, RHS/USDA loans composed 1.1 percent and VA loans composed 12.3 percent. The average loan size of new homes decreased from $339,534 in October to $337,427 in November.
Data do not include any adjustment for typical seasonal patterns.
“New homes sales continued to recover in November from the impact of hurricanes, up just a bit on a seasonally adjusted basis over the month, and nearly 13 percent higher than a year ago, according to our projections from monthly application activity,” said MBA Vice President of Research and Economics Lynn Fisher. “Looking ahead to 2018, filling open construction jobs will remain a main challenge for the home building industry.”
MBA estimated new single-family home sales at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 663,000 units in November, an increase of 0.6 percent from the October pace of 659,000 units. On an unadjusted basis, MBA estimated 47,000 new home sales in November, a decrease of 11.3 percent from 53,000 in October.
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.
