The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reports that applications for new home purchase mortgages were down 3 percent in November compared to October.  Based on results of its Builder Applications Survey conducted with mortgage subsidiaries of new home builders, they project an increase of 12 percent compared to November 2015.  The change does not include any adjustment for seasonal patterns.

"Mortgage applications for new homes continued to grow on a year over year basis in November, driven by continued improvement in the overall economy and job growth," said Lynn Fisher, MBA's Vice President of Research and Economics. "Despite the fact that overall home prices have increased at a greater than 5 percent annualized rate, the growth in average loan size for new homes has slowed, increasing 3 percent in November to $329,400 from a year ago and up just 1 percent since January."

MBA estimates that there were 588,000 single family homes sold in November on a seasonally adjusted annual basis, an increase of 7.5 percent from the October rate of 547,000 units.  On an unadjusted basis, the estimate is that 41,000 new homes were sold, down 6.8 percent from 44,000 new home sales in October.

MBA derives its estimates using mortgage application information from the association's builder survey along with assumptions regarding market coverage.  Official new home sales counts are published by the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.  November sales data will be available on December 23.

Conventional loans had a 67.3 percent share of new home loan applications while FHA loans comprised 18.3 percent, VA loans 13.8 percent and RHS/USDA loans 0.7 percent.  The average loan size of new homes decreased from $329,634 in October to $329,389 in November.