September new home sales increased 3.1 percent from August and 29.8 percent from a year ago, to 593,000 units at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR), according to the Census Bureau. The annual gain represents the largest year-over-year increase since February 2015.
September new home sales increased 3.1 percent from August and 29.8 percent from a year ago, to 593,000 units at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR), according to the Census Bureau. The annual gain represents the largest year-over-year increase since February 2015.
But despite the seemingly strong month, new home sales for June, July and August were revised downward by a combined 85,000 units (SAAR). June sales were revised down by 21,000 units to 558,000, July sales were revised down by 30,000 units to 629,000, and August sales were revised down by 34,000 units to 575,000 (figure 1). With the revisions, August’s initially reported 7.6 percent monthly decline in home sales is now an 8.6 percent decline.
The number of new homes on the market fell 0.4 percent in September but rose 6.3 percent over the year to 235,000 units (SAAR), the slowest pace of annualized inventory growth since August 2015. The number of new homes on the market is up 65 percent from summer 2012 lows, when there were only 142,000 new homes on the market. But inventory of new homes is still well down from both summer 2005, when there were about 570,000 new homes on the market, and the long-term historical average (1963-2016) of 310,000 new homes on the market.
The median seasonally adjusted price of new homes sold in September rose 3.5 from August and 1.8 percent from last September, to $305,700, reversing the monthly and annual price declines of the prior two months.
