New Home Mortgage Applications Fall For Fifth Straight Month
By CU Today Staff —
WASHINGTON— Mortgage applications to purchase newly built homes fell 5.5% in August from a year earlier and declined 6% from July, as higher mortgage rates continued to weigh on buyers, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s latest Builder Application Survey.
The monthly figures are not adjusted for typical seasonal patterns.
“Increasing mortgage rates continue to put pressure on new home sales activity. Applications to purchase newly constructed homes declined in August for the fifth straight month, with the level of applications down to its lowest in 2026,” said Joel Kan, CMB, MBA’s vice president and deputy chief economist. “More homebuyers turned to FHA loans in response to higher mortgage rates and those loans accounted for 35% of applications, the highest share in three months. New home sales were estimated to have increased over the month to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 664,000 units, but remain 9% lower than last year’s pace.”
MBA estimated new single-family home sales were running at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 664,000 units in August, up 2.6% from July’s pace of 647,000. On an unadjusted basis, MBA estimated 52,000 new homes were sold during August, down 3.7% from 54,000 in July.
FHA loans accounted for 35% of new-home mortgage applications, while conventional loans represented 49.5%, VA loans 13.9% and RHS/USDA loans 1.7%. The average loan size for new homes declined to $373,194 in August from $374,438 in July.
Originally reported by CU Today.