New homes sales surge

The good times continue to roll on for originators, with home sales continuing to show impressive growth

Applications were up in last month according to recently released stats, meaning brokers likely had a busy September.

"Positive momentum in mortgage applications to homebuilder affiliates lead us to estimate that new home sales were up 29 percent in September compared to a year ago." Lynn Fisher, MBA's vice president of research and economics said. "It also suggests that housing starts will continue to post relatively strong numbers through the end of the year."

According to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Builder Application Survey, applications were up 3% year-over-year in September.

Conventional loans made up 67.7% of those applications and FHA loans composed 19.2%.

Loan sizes were also up, with September’s average of $324,844 besting August’s mark of $317,035.

“The MBA estimates new single-family home sales were running at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 548,000 units in September 2015, the MBA said. “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 association estimates there were 42,000 new home sales in September, up 2.4% from the 41,000 new home sales in August.