Mortgage loan application volume to purchase a new home in the U.S. ticked up 10 percent from February to March with typical seasonality in play. That being said, application volumes were down 5 percent on a year-over-year basis, reflecting an additional 1.1 point drop in year-over-year activity from February and despite the fact that the number of new homes on the market across the country hit a 13-year high at the end of February, at which point inventory levels were up 33 percent, year-over-year.