Third Quarter 2021 Reaches a 13-Year High for Conventional Loan Share of New Home Sales
The National Association of Home Builders shared that 75.5% of new home sales that were recorded in the 2021 third quarter was the largest share seen since the first of the 2008 Great Recession. The data comes from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Quarterly Sales by Price and Financing.
The Quarterly Sales by Price and Financing reports are surveys of New Residential Sales that are done every March, June, September and December. These are tables that are published through the U.S. Census Bureau.
This record share saw an increase of 1.7 percentage points over 2021 2nd Quarter and has kept rising for the last three quarters. This has shown an increase of 6.9 percentage points since Q4 2021.
As for sales backed by conventional loans, the share increased quarter-over-quarter 74% from Q3 2020 to Q3 2021. The data shows a 4.9 percentage points gain over Q2 2021. FHA-backed sales came in at 11.9% in Q3 2021 which was a decline of 1.1 percentage points over Q2 2021. As for year-over-year, it was a decline of 6.6 percentage points.
VA-backed sales also came in with a decline of 1.7 percentage points from Q3 2020. The data shows a 4.9% decline which is the exact opposite of cash purchases.
Cash purchases rose 7.6% making this a rise for the past two quarters. It is now 4.4% which is the largest we have seen since Q4 2014. For Q3 2021 there was a 7.7% climb with 1,000 sales and a 4,000 increase year-over-year.
The 30-year fixed rate for both conventional and government-backed mortgages also declined quarter-over-quarter. Conventional-backed mortgages reported a 93 basis points decline while government-backed mortgages came in 72 basis points lower than seen in Q4 2019.
