"There also continues to be a shift to the higher end of the market"
The Mortgage Bankers Association reported a drop in purchase mortgage applications in November.
Applications to purchase new homes were down by 3% month over month and 2.2% year over year. However, the average loan amount rose to a new record of $414,114 in November – up from $412,339 in October.
“A competitive purchase market, combined with increased building materials costs, have been pushing sales prices higher,” said Joel Kan, MBA’s associate vice president of economic and industry forecasting. “There also continues to be a shift to the higher end of the market, which is also contributing to the higher loan amounts.”
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Based on MBA’s data, an estimated 905,000 new single-family homes were sold in November. This seasonally adjusted estimate was an increase of 0.9% from the October rate of 897,000 units. Unadjusted, there were an estimated 65,000 new home sales in November, down 4.4% from 68,000 sales in the previous month.
Kan said that the November estimate is the largest for the month since the survey began in 2012.
“New home sales had a strong month with more homebuyers choosing newly built homes,” he said. “Home sales edged higher over the month to the strongest annual pace since January 2021 at 905,000 units, as limited for-sale inventory has driven more demand to the new home segment.”
