Jumping in June: New Home Purchase Mortgage Application Data

July 19, 2024

According to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Builder Application Survey (BAS) for June 2024, the number of mortgage applications for the purchase of new homes increased by 0.7% from the previous year. The number of applications fell by 16% from May 2024. This change does not include any adjustment for typical seasonal patterns

“Applications for new home purchases slowed in June, consistent with broader declines in single-family construction and new building permits as well as typical seasonal patterns,” said Joel Kan, MBA’s VP and Deputy Chief Economist. “The average loan size edged lower for the second consecutive month, and the share of FHA applications increased to 28.7%, as first-time buyers continue to account for a growing share of demand for newly built homes.”

New Home Sales Slow Despite Uptick in New Mortgage Applications

As a reliable predictor of the U.S. Census Bureau’s New Residential Sales report, MBA projects that, in June 2024, new single-family home sales will be operating at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 626,000 units. The BAS’s mortgage application data is used to estimate new house sales, together with several characteristics and market coverage assumptions.

“MBA’s estimate of new home sales showed a monthly decline to a pace of 626,000 units—the slowest in four months,” Kan said. “Mortgage rates dipped below 7% in June but that did little to spur purchase activity.”

MBA’s Builder Application Survey Shows Increase in Mortgage Applications as Sales Lag

Seasonally adjusted, the June estimate is 10.8% lower than the May pace of 702,000 units. MBA projects that June 2024 saw 52,000 new home sales on an unadjusted basis, a 17.5% drop from May’s 63,000 new home sales.

Conventional loans accounted for 60.8% of loan applications by product type, followed by FHA loans (287.7%), RHS/USDA loans (0.3%), and VA loans (10.2%). Between May and June, the mean loan amount for newly constructed homes dropped from $400,150 to $399,879.

To read the full report, including more data, charts, and methodology, click here.

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Demetria C. Lester

Demetria C. Lester is a reporter for MortgagePoint (formerly DS News and MReport) with more than eight years of writing and editing experience. She has served as content coordinator and copy editor for the Los Angeles Daily News and the Orange County Register, in addition to 11 other Southern California publications. A former editor-in-chief at Northlake College and staff writer at her alma mater, the University of Texas at Arlington, she has covered events such as the Byron Nelson and Pac-12 Conferences, progressing into her freelance work with the Dallas Wings and D Magazine. Currently located in Dallas, Lester is a jazz aficionado, Harry Potter fanatic, and avid record collector. She can be reached at demetria.lester@thefivestar.com.