Hurricanes Harvey and Irma to Blame for New-Home Mortgage Application September Slump

According to a new survey from the Mortgage Bankers Association, mortgage applications for new homes dropped 20% overall from August to September, 37% in Florida and 11% in Texas. Concurrently, new construction has been affected with the rebuilding efforts and overall construction delays resulting from the hurricanes, per Realtor.com.

"This is the only time we've seen a [big] drop in recent memory," says Lynn Fisher, vice president of research and economics for the Washington, DC–based industry trade group. With the storms, buyers' "attention was on other things."

"It may be hard for people in other parts of the states to hire enough people to help them build a home," Fisher says. "You can image with all the cleanup activity, home repairs, home rebuilding, a lot of resources like labor will flow to the affected areas."

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