October New Home Purchase Mortgage Applications Decrease 2.6%
The Mortgage Bankers Association’s Builder Application Survey for October 2025 shows mortgage applications for new home purchases decreased 2.6% compared to a year ago.
Compared to September 2025, applications decreased by 1%. This change does not include any adjustment for typical seasonal patterns.
“Lower mortgage rates, ongoing usage of builder concessions, and growing levels of for-sale inventory drove an increase in new home sales for October. The annual sales pace, at 771,000 units, was the strongest in over a year,” said Joel Kan, MBA vice president and deputy chief economist. “The increased use of ARM loans, for which rates were averaging almost 80 basis points lower than fixed-rate loans, also contributed to the jump in sales and a slightly higher average loan size, the third monthly increase. In October, our data showed that ARM loans accounted for 25% of applications, up from 16% a year ago.”
Added Kan, “The MBA’s new home sales estimate is a useful leading indicator of the Census new home sales number, which has not been published since the August data release. Unadjusted mortgage applications counts declined slightly over the month but remained at a healthy pace relative to the past three years.”
MBA estimates new single-family home sales, which has consistently been a leading indicator of the U.S. Census Bureau’s New Residential Sales report, is that new single-family home sales were running at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 771,000 units in October 2025. 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 seasonally adjusted estimate for October is an increase of 13.4% from the September pace of 680,000 units. On an unadjusted basis, MBA estimates that there were 55,000 new home sales in October 2025, an increase of 1.9% from 54,000 new home sales in September.
By product type, conventional loans composed 51.9% of loan applications, FHA loans composed 35.1%, RHS/USDA loans composed 0.7% and VA loans composed 12.3%. The average loan size for new homes increased from $379,107 in September to $381,404 in October.
MBA’s Builder Application Survey tracks application volume from mortgage subsidiaries of home builders across the country. Utilizing this data, as well as data from other sources, MBA is able to provide an early estimate of new home sales volumes at the national, state, and metro level. This data also provides information regarding the types of loans used by new home buyers. Official new home sales estimates are conducted by the Census Bureau on a monthly basis. In that data, new home sales are recorded at contract signing, which is typically coincident with the mortgage application. For additional information on MBA’s Builder Application Survey, please click here.
