The pace of sales on newly constructed houses turned higher during July, and the Northeast experienced the biggest percentage gain.
Last month, the annual U.S. rate of new single-family home sales worked out to 507,000 on a
seasonally adjusted basis.
That was
an improvement over June, when the rate was 481,000. The prior-month figure was originally reported at 482,000.
The Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development jointly released the data Tuesday.
Activity was solidly better than a year earlier, when the new home sales rate was 403,000.
Compared to June, sales in the Northeast were up 23 percent — more than any other region. Still, that only brought the rate to 32,000 — the lowest of any territory.
In the West, sales were up seven percent to 127,000 in July, while the South improved by six percent
to 294,000.
The only area to experience a decline was the Midwest, where new home sales fell seven percent from June to 54,000.
There were 43,000 U.S. homes sold during just July, fewer than the 45,000 sold the prior month but more than the 35,000 sold in July of last year.
The figures were not adjusted for seasonal variations.
As of July 31, 2015, there were 218,000 new homes for sale. Of those, 39,000 hadn’t yet been started, 129,000 were under construction and 50,000 were completed.
The total inventory for sale was slightly higher than 214,000 a month earlier and 204,000 a year earlier.
At the current sales rate, it would take 5.2 months to clear out the existing supply of new homes for sale, down from 5.3 months in June and 6.1 months in July 2014.
The report indicated that the median sales price on new homes was $285,900, up from $277,500 the prior month and $280,400 in the year-earlier month.
The average sales price was $361,600, ascending from just $319,600 in the previous report and $345,000 one year previous..
