New Home Purchase Apps Up Nearly 35 Percent YoY

The Mortgage Bankers Association's Builder Application Survey data reported a 34.7% increase in new home purchase mortgage applications year-over-year for November 2020. This marks a 16% increase month-over-month from October 2020, according to the report.

"November new home sales activity, both mortgage applications and home sales ran at a pace considerably ahead of 2019, showing the ongoing strong growth in housing demand and new residential construction," said Joel Kan, MBA's associate vice president of Economic and Industry Forecasting. "However, MBA estimates that after climbing to a new survey high in October, the seasonally adjusted pace of new home sales declined in November. Signs of a slowdown in the economic recovery likely contributed to the expected monthly decrease in activity."

The MBA estimates that new single-family home sales were running at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 827,000 units for November. Additionally, Conventional loans made up 71.8% of loan applications, FHA loans composed 16.8%, RHS/USDA loans composed 0.9% and VA made up 10.4%. The average loan size of new homes increased from $355,684 in October to $357,554 in November.