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Refinance and purchase applications (both down 2%) ended the week at a six-month low, driving the decline in overall application activity.
On the bright side, applications for purchase loans on newly constructed homes remained strong, up 35.5% from July 2022, as “new homes continued to account for a growing share of homes available for sale,” Kan noted.
“The FHA share of purchase applications was 24.2%, the highest share since May 2020, and has increased in four of the last five months,” Kan said in a separate MBA report. “FHA purchase loans are a popular option for many first-time homebuyers, and this increasing trend in the FHA share is indicative of more first-time buyers looking to new homes as an option, given the lack of for-sale inventory among existing homes and challenging affordability conditions.”
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