New Home Mortgage Applications Plummet in August

The Mortgage BankersrnAssociation (MBA) said that applications for mortgages to purchase new homesrndropped 14 percent in August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 424,000rnunits.  On an unadjusted basis there werernan estimated 35,000 applications for new home purchases during the month. </p

An estimated 67.8rnpercent of the loan applications were for conventional mortgages and 17.3rnpercent were for FHA-backed loans.  VArnloans made up 13.9 percent of applications and those for Rural Housing/USDArnloans a slight 1.0 percent.</p

The average size of thernloan for which applications were made dropped slightly from $288,382 in July torn$284,392 in August.  </p

New home sales data fromrnthe U.S. Census Bureau is not yet available for August and the two sets are notrndirectly comparable. MBA’s information is from surveys of mortgage subsidiariesrnregarding applications during the month. rnThe official government estimate of new home sales records those salesrnat contract signing.  Census Bureau data forrnAugust will be released on September 25.

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