Applications for new home purchases decreased 11% on an unadjusted basis in April compared with March, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Builder Application Survey.
“The index decline in April is more than likely a result of both February and March seeing a strong surge in applications for new homes and the index not being seasonally adjusted,” says Lynn Fisher, vice president of research and economics for the MBA, in a release. “In fact, last year, peak applications occurred in March.”
By product type, conventional loans composed 67.8% of applications for new homes, while loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration composed 18.3%. Rural Housing Service/U.S. Department of Agriculture loans composed 0.6%, and Veteran’s Affairs loans composed 13.3%.
The average loan size for a new home in April was $325,233, down from $328,898 in March.
As of April, sales of new single-family homes were running at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 503,000 units, according to the MBA’s report.
The MBA is forecasting that April new-home sales will decrease 12.4% on an adjusted basis compared with the annual pace of about 574,000 units seen in March.
On an unadjusted basis, the MBA estimates that there were 48,000 new home sales in April – a decrease of 11.1% from 54,000 in March.