Mortgage Applications for New Home Purchases Upticks in U.S.

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According to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Builder Application Survey (BAS) for June 2015, mortgage applications for new home purchases increased by 1 percent relative to the previous month. This change does not include any adjustment for typical seasonal patterns.

"As house prices continue to recover, mortgage applications for the purchase of newly constructed homes increased slightly in June. Application activity in June was slightly higher compared to the past two years, leading us to estimate that new homes sales increased 8 percent from May on a seasonally adjusted annual basis," said Lynn Fisher, MBA's Vice President of Research and Economics.

By product type, conventional loans composed 67.2 percent of loan applications, FHA loans composed 19.6 percent, RHS/USDA loans composed 1.0 percent and VA loans composed 12.2 percent. The average loan size of new homes increased from $320,744 in May to $321,678 in June.

The MBA estimates new single-family home sales were running at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 496,000 units in June 2015, based on data from the BAS. The new home sales estimate is derived using mortgage application information from the BAS, as well as assumptions regarding market coverage and other factors.

The seasonally adjusted estimate for June is an increase of 8.1 percent from the May pace of 459,000 units. On an unadjusted basis, the MBA estimates that there were 45,000 new home sales in June 2015, unchanged from May.