Dive Brief:

• There were 18% fewer applications in November for mortgages to buy new single-family homes than there were in October, according to a Mortgage Bankers Association survey.
• The bankers gather data from the mortgage subsidiaries of home builders and blend them with other data to project where home sales are headed.
• One of the conclusions from the survey and analysis was that builders sold 32,000 houses in November after selling 40,000 in October, while the average mortgage applied for rose to $295,523.

Dive Insight:

The reporting, called the Builder Application Survey, started in June, but the average mortgage application was up $12,000 from then until November. The report does not suggest that the rising prices directly caused the decline in mortgage applications, but the figures seem to be in line with a report yesterday that high-end home-builder Toll Brothers seems to have found a point where even high-wealth customers are pulling back.