May New Home Purchase Mortgage Applications Decreased 4.5 Percent
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Builder Application Survey (BAS) data for May 2025 shows mortgage applications for new home purchases decreased 4.5 percent compared from a year ago. Compared to April 2025, applications decreased by 9 percent. This change does not include any adjustment for typical seasonal patterns.
“Economic uncertainty, rising mortgage rates, and increasing competition from growing existing-home sales inventory likely dampened overall demand for new home purchases in May,” said Joel Kan, MBA’s Vice President and Deputy Chief Economist. “Applications to purchase newly built homes fell to their slowest pace in three months as buyers held off on their purchase decisions. Estimated new home sales posted a 12 percent drop, reversing April’s large gain and closer to levels seen earlier in the year.”
MBA estimates new single-family home sales, which has consistently been a leading indicator of the U.S. Census Bureau’s New Residential Sales report, is that new single-family home sales were running at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 631,000 units in May 2025. 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 May is a decrease of 12.1 percent from the April pace of 718,000 units. On an unadjusted basis, MBA estimates that there were 58,000 new home sales in May 2025, a decrease of 10.8 percent from 65,000 new home sales in April.
By product type, conventional loans composed 47.3 percent of loan applications, FHA loans composed 37.8 percent, RHS/USDA loans composed 1.0 percent and VA loans composed 13.8 percent. The average loan size for new homes increased from $376,992 in April to $379,209 in May.
MBA’s Builder Application Survey tracks application volume from mortgage subsidiaries of home builders across the country. Utilizing this data, as well as data from other sources, MBA is able to provide an early estimate of new home sales volumes at the national, state, and metro level. This data also provides information regarding the types of loans used by new home buyers. Official new home sales estimates are conducted by the Census Bureau on a monthly basis. In that data, new home sales are recorded at contract signing, which is typically coincident with the mortgage application.
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