MBA: September New Home Purchase Mortgage Apps Down 7.5%
Mortgage applications for new home purchases fell by 7.5 percent in September, giving back August gains and some, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported this morning.
The monthly MBA Builder Applications Survey said mortgage applications for new home purchases decreased 7.5 percent from a year ago; from August, applications fell by 20 percent, unadjusted for typical seasonal patterns.
“Applications for new home purchases were down year over year in large part due the impacts of hurricane activity,” said MBA Vice President of Research and Economics Lynn Fisher. “In particular monthly applications fell by 37 percent in Florida and 11 percent in Texas, which account for a large share of the applications in the survey.”
By product type, conventional loans composed 72.3 percent of loan applications, FHA loans composed 13.9 percent, RHS/USDA loans composed 1.0 percent and VA loans composed 12.7 percent. The average loan size of new homes decreased from $334,940 in August to $334,722 in September.
MBA estimated new single-family home sales at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 571,000 units in September, based on BAS data, a decrease of 12.8 percent from August (655,000 units). On an unadjusted basis, MBA estimated 42,000 new home sales in September, a decrease of 19.2 percent from 52,000 new home sales in August.
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.
