U.S. New Home Sales & Prices Increase in July
by:Tom Moeller
|in:Economy in Brief
Summary
- Sales are highest since February of last year.
- Regional sales patterns remain mixed.
- Median sales price increases to four-month high.
New single-family home sales rose 4.4% (31.5% y/y) during July to 714,000 units (SAAR) from 684,000 during June, revised from 697,000 units, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected sales of 707,000. Sales remained below the peak of 1.029 million in August 2020.
By region, sales in the Midwest rose 47.4% (58.5% y/y) to 84,000 after falling 24.0% to 57,000 in June. Sales in the West rose 21.5% (60.2% y/y) to 181,000 in July, up from a low of 106,000 in June of last year. Offsetting these gains, sales in the South fell 6.3% (+17.5% y/y) to 416,000 following three straight monthly increases. New home sales in the Northeast weakened 2.9% (+43.5% y/y) to 33,000 and reversed the 3.0% June increase.
The median price of a new home rose 4.8% (-8.7% y/y) to $436,700 in July following a 0.7% June decline. Despite the increase, the price has weakened 12.1% since its October peak of $496,800. The average sales price of a new home rose 1.1% (-9.2% y/y) to $513,000 after a 3.3% June rise. These sales price data are not seasonally adjusted.
The number of new homes on the market rose 2.1% (-4.8% y/y) to 437,000 in July and added to June’s increase. These figures remain below the 466,000 high in October 2022 but well above a low of 281,000 in October 2020. The seasonally adjusted months' supply of new homes for sale slipped to 7.3 months in July. It remained down from a high of 10.1 months in July 2022 but remained well above its record low of 3.3 months in October 2020.
The median number of months a new home stayed on the market declined to 2.3 months in July. The reading remained up from the record low of 1.5 months in both September and October of last year but down from a high of 5.1 months in March 2021. These figures date back to January 1975.
New home sales activity and prices are available in Haver's USECON database. The consensus expectation figure from Action Economics is available in the AS1REPNA database.
Tom Moeller
AuthorMore in Author Profile »Prior to joining Haver Analytics in 2000, Mr. Moeller worked as the Economist at Chancellor Capital Management from 1985 to 1999. There, he developed comprehensive economic forecasts and interpreted economic data for equity and fixed income portfolio managers. Also at Chancellor, Mr. Moeller worked as an equity analyst and was responsible for researching and rating companies in the economically sensitive automobile and housing industries for investment in Chancellor’s equity portfolio. Prior to joining Chancellor, Mr. Moeller was an Economist at Citibank from 1979 to 1984. He also analyzed pricing behavior in the metals industry for the Council on Wage and Price Stability in Washington, D.C. In 1999, Mr. Moeller received the award for most accurate forecast from the Forecasters' Club of New York. From 1990 to 1992 he was President of the New York Association for Business Economists. Mr. Moeller earned an M.B.A. in Finance from Fordham University, where he graduated in 1987. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from George Washington University.
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