By Jann Swanson | Mortgage News Daily
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) says applications for new home purchases suffered a significant downturn in November but remain well above the level of activity at the same time in 2019. MBA’s Builder Application Survey (BAS) shows a 16 percent decline in applications from October to November. This does not include any seasonal adjustment. Applications were up 34.7 compared to November 2019.
Based on the applications and other data, MBA estimates new single-family home sales were running at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 827,000 units during the month, a decrease of 10.8 percent from the October pace of 927,000 units. On an unadjusted basis, MBA estimates that there were 59,000 new home sales in November 2020, down 15.7 percent from 70,000 sales in October.
“November new home sales activity, both mortgage applications and home sales, ran at a pace considerably ahead of 2019, showing the ongoing strong growth in housing demand and new residential construction,” said Joel Kan, MBA’s Associate Vice President of Economic and Industry Forecasting. “However, MBA estimates that after climbing to a new survey high in October, the seasonally adjusted pace of new home sales declined in November. Signs of a slowdown in the economic recovery likely contributed to the expected monthly decrease in activity.”
