MBA: March New Home Purchase Mortgage Applications Up 14%
Mortgage applications for new home purchases increased by 14 percent in March from February but decreased by 2.6 percent from a year ago, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported this morning.
MBA Builder Application Survey data reported by product type, conventional loans composed 71.2 percent of loan applications, FHA loans composed 15.4 percent, RHS/USDA loans composed 1.4 percent and VA loans composed 11.9 percent. The average loan size of new homes decreased from $338,078 in February to $337,597 in March.
These changes do not include any adjustment for typical seasonal patterns.
“We saw a strong January and February, and that may have pulled some activity forward,” said Joel Kan, MBA Associate Vice President of Economic and Industry Forecasting. “We did, however, see the third straight month over month increase, which is in line with the typical seasonal pattern at this time of the year.”
MBA estimated new single-family home sales at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 682,000 units in March, an increase of 7.9 percent from 632,000 units in February. On an unadjusted basis, MBA estimated 65,000 new home sales in March, an increase of 18.2 percent from 55,000 in February.
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.
