Applications on New Home Purchases Down 11 Percent

Mortgage applications for new home purchases decreased by 11 percent last month, according to the latest Builder Application Survey from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).

MBA estimated new single-family home sales were running at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 503,000 units in April, a decrease of 12.4 percent from the March pace of 574,000 units. On an unadjusted basis, MBA estimated that there were 48,000 new home sales in April, down 11.1 percent from 54,000 new home sales in March.

The average loan size of new homes decreased from $328,898 in March to $325,233 in April. Among product types, conventional loans composed 67.8 percent of loan applications, while FHA loans composed 18.3 percent, VA loans composed 13.3 percent, and RHS/USDA loans composed 0.6 percent.

“The index decline in April is more than likely a result of both February and March seeing a strong surge in applications for new homes and the index not being seasonally adjusted,” said Lynn Fisher, MBA’s vice president of research and economics. “In fact, last year peak applications occurred in March.”