Mortgage applications for new home purchases increased 0.9% year-over-year in February, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). Compared to January, applications decreased by 1%.
The MBA estimated new single-family home sales were running at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 641,000 units in February, down by 3.3% from the January pace of 663,000 units. On an unadjusted basis, the MBA estimated that there were 57,000 new home sales in February, a decrease of 1.7% from 58,000 new home sales in January.
The average loan size for new homes decreased from $385,506 in January to $383,570 in February. By product type, conventional loans composed 49.4 % of loan applications and FHA loans composed 35.3%.
Separately, the MBA reported independent mortgage banks (IMBs) and mortgage subsidiaries of chartered banks reported a pre-tax net production profit of $674 on each loan they originated in the fourth quarter of 2025, compared to a net production profit of $1,201 per loan in the third quarter of 2025.
“Net production profits averaged 17 basis points in the fourth quarter of 2025, an increase from losses of 4 basis points in the fourth quarter of 2024,” said Marina Walsh, MBA’s vice president of industry analysis. “Combining both production and servicing operations, 68% of mortgage companies in MBA’s sample posted overall profits in the fourth quarter of 2025, a modest increase from 61 percent one year ago. Despite these improvements, fourth-quarter production profits were down from the previous quarter. Compared to the third quarter of 2025, production volume rose, production revenues dropped, and the cost to originate stayed relatively flat.”
