Applications for mortgages for new home purchases fell 14% in November compared with October and were down 11% compared with November 2017, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Builders Applications Survey
“By our estimates, new home sales fell almost seven percent in November, and were about five percent lower than a year ago,” says Joel Kan, associate vice president of economic and industry forecasting for the MBA, in a statement. “Despite a still-strong job market and recent declines in mortgage rates, affordability challenges continue to hold back sales activity, as wage growth still lags behind home-price growth.
“Additionally, recent stock market volatility and some economic uncertainty likely also contributed to the pullback in home sales in November,” he says.
As of the end of November, new single-family home sales were running at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of about 627,000, the MBA estimates. That’s a decrease of 6.8% compared with 673,000 units in October.
On an unadjusted basis, the MBA estimates that there were 45,000 new home sales in November, a decrease of 15.1% compared with about 53,000 in October.
The average loan size for a new home in November was $326,037, down from $331,732 in October.
