U.S. New Home Sales Improve in December
by:Tom Moeller
|in:Economy in Brief
Summary
- Home sales rise for third straight month.
- Sales changes are mixed regionally.
- Median sales price falls sharply.
New single-family home sales during December increased 2.3% (-26.6% y/y) to 616,000 (AR) from 602,000 in November. October sales totaled 598,000. The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected sales of 618,000 new homes.
Last month's gain in new home sales reflected varied movement amongst the regions of the country. In the Midwest, sales surged 35.2% in December (-14.1% y/y) to 73,000 following a 10.2% November rise. Sales in the South rose 6.5% (-17.5% y/y) to 392,000 after a 3.9% November decline. To the downside, in the Northeast sales fell 19.4% (-21.6% y/y) to 29,000 after falling 12.2% in November. Sales in the West weakened 15.3% (-49.6% y/y) in December to 122,000 and reversed all of the November rise.
The median price of a new home fell 3.7% last month (+7.8% y/y) to $442,100 after falling 6.6% in November. The average sales price of a new home eased slightly (-7.6% y/y) to $528,400 following a 1.8% November decline. These sales price data are not seasonally adjusted.
The number of unsold new homes on the market held steady (+18.5% y/y) at a seasonally adjusted 461,000 units, up from a low of 142,000 in July 2012. The seasonally adjusted months' supply of new homes for sale eased to 9.0 months, but remained up from a low of 3.3 months in August 2020. The median number of months a new home stayed on the market edged up to 2.0 from the record low of 1.5 months in both September & October. These figures were down from a high of 5.1 months in March 2021. These data 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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