Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Builder Application Survey (BAS) data for February 2021 shows that mortgage applications for new home purchases increased 9.2 percent compared to a year ago.
Compared to January 2021, applications decreased by 9 percent.
“The economy and job market continue to improve, but new home sales activity slowed in February,” says Joel Kan, MBA’s associate vice president of economic and industry forecasting. “Builders continue to be confronted with rising input costs and a lack of available lots, causing them to slow production.”
The MBA says its February estimate of new home sales – 748,000 units – was at its slowest annual pace since May 2020. For seven consecutive months, new home sales paced at 800,000+ each month.
The seasonally adjusted estimate for February is a decrease of 17.3 percent from the January pace of 905,000 units. On an unadjusted basis, MBA estimates that there were 65,000 new home sales in February 2021 – a decrease of 5.8 percent from 69,000 new home sales in January.
By product type, conventional loans composed 74.0 percent of loan applications, FHA loans composed 15.4 percent, RHS/USDA loans composed 1.5 percent and VA loans composed 9 percent. The average loan size of new homes increased from $363,493 in January to $370,679 in February.
Photo by Great Valley Center, licensed under CC BY 2.0