Compared with one year ago, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Builder Application Survey (BAS) data for June 2023 found that mortgage applications for new-home purchases increased 26.1% while applications decreased by 5% compared with May 2023. The change does not include any adjustment.
“New-home purchase activity continues to be a bright spot, as both new-home applications and home sales were up on an annual basis. With existing inventory still held back by homeowners, prospective buyers have turned to newly built homes instead,” says Joel Kan, MBA’s vice president and deputy chief economist. “Rising mortgage rates in June likely caused some pullback in purchases over the month, as the 30-year fixed rate averaged close to 6.8%. However, applications for new-home purchases have now shown annual increases for five consecutive months.”
The new-home sales estimate uses mortgage application information from the BAS and assumptions regarding market coverage and other factors. For June 2023, new single-family home sales were running at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 687,000 units in June 2023. The seasonally adjusted estimate was a decrease of 9% from the May pace of 755,000 units.
On an unadjusted basis, MBA estimates that there were 60,000 new-home sales in June 2023, a decrease of 6.3% from 64,000 new-home sales in May. By product type, conventional loans made up 65.5% of loan applications; FHA loans, 24.1%; RHS/USDA loans, 0.3%; and VA loans, 10%. The average loan size of new homes decreased from $403,581 in May to $400,281 in June.
MBA’s BAS tracks application volume from mortgage subsidiaries of home builders across the country. MBA can provide an early estimate of new-home sales volumes at the national, state, and metro level by using this data in addition to other sources.
