The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics trends for housing finance in the months to September 2017 show strong growth in the number of loans to first home buyers. ABS commented in its monthly release yesterday that the increase has been driven mainly by changes to first home buyer incentives made in July by the New South Wales and Victorian governments, as the general mood seems to be sour elsewhere.Home loan demand has fallen over the month of September, Mortgage Choice chief executive officer John Flavell said, citing housing finance data from the ABS, which shows that 55,812 home loans were approved throughout September - down from 57,137 the month before. "This 2.3 per cent drop in home loan demand was largely expected," Flavell said.Other key points from the ABS data are:•    the trend estimate for the total value of dwelling finance commitments excluding alterations and additions fell 0.1 per cent;•    owner-occupied housing commitments rose 0.2 per cent while investment housing commitments fell 0.5 per cent; and•    in seasonally adjusted terms, the total value of dwelling finance commitments excluding alterations and additions fell 3.6 per cent.The ABS said it is working with APRA and the financial institutions to establish the size of the increase in first home buyer lending in recent months and to improve the quality of first home buyer statistics more broadly.September 2017 compared with August 2017, in trend terms:•    the number of commitments for owner-occupied housing finance rose 0.7 per cent in September 2017;•    in trend terms, the number of commitments for the purchase of new dwellings rose 1.4 per cent, the number of commitments for the purchase of established dwellings rose 0.7 per cent and the number of commitments for the construction of dwellings rose 0.4 per cent; and•    in original terms, the number of first home buyer commitments as a percentage of total owner-occupied housing finance commitments rose to 17.4 per cent in September 2017 from 17.2 per cent in August 2017 (the number of first home buyer commitments decreased 6.3 per cent to 9,627 in September but the number of non-first home buyer commitments decreased 8.0 per cent).The importance of the economic data: in this instance the housing finance data is produced monthly by the Bureau of Statistics and shows commitments by lenders, such as banks. Generally people get their finance organised first, so the figures are regarded as a leading indicator on the housing market, to provide finance for housing purpose, noted Ryan Felsman, senior economist, at CommSec.