MBA: May New Home Purchase Applications Up 4%
Mortgage applications for new home purchases increased by 4 percent from April and by 15 percent from a year ago, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported this morning.
The MBA Builder Applications Survey said by product type, conventional loans composed 69.2 percent of loan applications, FHA loans composed 17.5 percent, RHS/USDA loans composed 1.1 percent and VA loans composed 12.2 percent. The average loan size of new homes decreased from a revised $329,244 in April to $324,844 in May.
The changes do not include any adjustment for typical seasonal patterns.
“While March has signaled the peak in applications for new homes for the last two years, we may see more sustained activity throughout the balance of this year as demand for new homes continues to increase and strong house price growth continues to motivate homebuilding,” said , MBA Vice President of Research and Economics Lynn Fisher.
MBA estimates new single-family home sales came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 605,000 units in May, an increase of 8.6 percent from the revised April pace of 557,000 units. On an unadjusted basis, MBA estimated 57,000 new home sales in May, an increase of 5.6 percent from the revised pace of 54,000 new home sales in April.
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.
