Mortgage applications for new home purchases decreased by 5 percent in December from the previous month, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Builder Application Survey (BAS) data.
“The BAS showed mixed results last month, with some lenders seeing steady or slightly increasing application levels, while others saw declines,” Lynn Fisher, the MBA’s vice president of research and economics, said in a statement. “On net, we estimate that new single-family home sales were down by about 8 percent in December on a seasonally adjusted basis relative to November, but remain 17 percent above a year ago.”
Conventional loans made up 68 percent of loan applications, FHA loans composed 18.5 percent, RHS/USDA loans composed 1 percent and VA loans composed 12.6 percent. The average loan size of new homes increased from $320,854 in November to $333,182 in December.
New single-family home sales were operating at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 480,000 units in December 2015, according to an MBA estimate based on BAS data. The new home sales estimate is determined through mortgage application information from the BAS, along with assumptions regarding market coverage and other factors.
December’s seasonally adjusted estimate shows a decrease of 8.4 percent from the November pace of 524,000 units. On an unadjusted basis, the MBA estimates that there were 34,000 new home sales in December 2015, a decrease of 8.1 percent from 37,000 new home sales in November.
