BY JANN SWANSON

Applications for new home purchases dropped in December,
falling 6.8 percent behind those a year earlier. The deficit from
November was even larger, a decline of 13 percent. The Mortgage
Bankers Association (MBA) estimates that those numbers, which
do not include any adjustment for seasonal patterns, translates into new home sales during the
month at an annual rate of 552,000 units, a 12 percent decrease from the estimated November pace
of 627,000 units. On an unadjusted basis, MBA says there were 37,000 new homes sold during the
month, down 17.8 percent from the 45,000 new home sales in November.