Applications for mortgages for new home purchases decreased 2.3% in October compared with September but increased 8.3% compared with October 2015, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Builder Application Survey (BAS).
About 67.7% of loan applications for new homes were for conventional loans, while about 18.4% were for loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration; 1.0% were for Rural Housing Service/U.S. Department of Agriculture loans, and about 12.9% were for Veterans Affairs loans.
The average loan size for a new home in October was $329,634, up from $326,998 in September, according to the MBA’s data.
The MBA estimates new single-family home sales were running at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of about 547,000 units in October. That’s a decrease of 7.8%, on an adjusted basis, from the September pace of 593,000 units.
On an unadjusted basis, the MBA estimates that there were 44,000 new home sales in October – unchanged compared with September.