New Home Purchase Applications Up Slightly in July

Applications for the purchase of newlyrnconstructed single-family homes rose 2 percent in July.  The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) basedrnthis estimate on responses to its Builder Application Survey (BAS) which pollsrnrepresentatives of mortgage subsidiaries of home builders nationwide.  The data is not seasonally adjusted.</p

Applications for conventional loansrncomprised 68.8 percent of the total in July and FHA loans 16.1 percent.  Veterans Administration (VA) loans accountedrnfor 13.6 percent of applications and Rural Housing Service (USDA) loans for 1.5rnpercent.  The average loan size for whichrnapplications were received in July was $297,253, a slight increase from thernJune average of $296,078. </p

Based on BAS responses and data fromrnother sources MBA estimates that new single-family home sales were running at arnseasonally adjusted annual rate of 433,000 units, an increase of 12.2 percentrnfrom the June estimate of 386,000 units. rnOn an unadjusted basis MBA estimates that 37,000 new homes were soldrnduring the month, up 2.8 percent from the 36,000 sold in June. </p

Official new home sales estimates are conducted byrnthe Census Bureau on a monthly basis.  In that data, new home sales arernrecorded at contract signing, which is typically coincident with the mortgagernapplication.

All Content Copyright © 2003 – 2009 Brown House Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.nReproduction in any form without permission of MortgageNewsDaily.com is prohibited.