Approximately 43,000 newly constructed homes were purchased in July, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said today. MBA based its estimate on mortgage applications for new homes filed with mortgage subsidiaries of home builders across the country and gathered through its monthly Builder Application Survey (BAS) Figures are not seasonally adjusted.

Conventional loans comprised 66.5 percent of the applications and FHA loans 17.7 percent. There were also a significant number of applications for Veterans Administration (VA) loans (14.5 percent). Less than 2 percent of applications were for Rural Housing Service/USDA loans.

Using data from the BAS as well as from other sources MBA is able to provide an early estimate of new home sales volumes at the national, state, and metro level and the types of loans selected. 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.