According to statistics from the August 2024 Builder Application Survey (BAS) by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), there was a 4.4% rise in mortgage applications for the purchase of new homes as compared to the previous year. There was no decline in applications when compared to July 2024. There is no adjustment made for normal seasonal variations in this alteration.
“Applications for new home purchases continue to show year-over-year growth, increasing by more than four percent and extending the annual growth streak to 19 consecutive months,” said Joel Kan, MBA’s VP and Deputy Chief Economist. “Homebuyers, including a growing share of first-time buyers, continue to favor newly built homes, as declining mortgage rates in August contributed to the uptick in new home sales activity. The FHA share of purchase applications reached another record high in the survey at 29.6%. Estimated new home sales increased almost 15% over the month, reaching the fastest sales pace since February 2022.”
According to MBA estimates, the number of new single-family home sales in August 2024 was 776,000 units, a seasonally adjusted annual rate. New single-family home sales have historically been a leading indication of the U.S. Census Bureau’s New Residential Sales report. The BAS’s mortgage application data is used to estimate new house sales, together with several characteristics and market coverage assumptions.
The seasonally adjusted estimate for August shows a 14.6% increase from the 677,000 units pace in July. MBA projects that, on an unadjusted basis, there will be 60,000 sales of new homes in August 2024, up 5.3% from 57,000 sales in July.
Conventional loans accounted for 59.7% of loan applications by product type, followed by FHA loans with 29.6%, RHS/USDA loans with 0.5%, and VA loans with 10.2%. In July and August, the average loan amount for newly constructed residences was $393,344 and $395,935 respectively.
To read the full report, including more data, charts, and methodology, click here.
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