The nation’s new home sales slowed in August, though they still remain strong. While sales in the Northeast plunged, they moved higher in the West.
Last month,
the sale of new U.S. homes preliminarily totaled 50,000 units, slowing from July’s nearly nine-year high of 57,000 new houses sold.
But despite the month-over-month decline, sales picked up from August 2015, when the new home sales total was a downwardly revised 41,000.
Historical data from the
Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development, which released the most-recent data on Monday, indicate that there were 401,000 newly constructed residences sold during the first-eight months of 2016.
Applying
adjustments for seasonality, the annual rate of new home sales was 609,000 in August 2016.
While the seasonally adjusted rate retreated from upwardly revised 659,000 the prior month — when sales reached to the highest level since October 2007 — it remained at the second-highest level during the past year and accelerated from 505,000 a year prior.
“Given the huge jump in sales in July, the August reading remains robust,” National Association of Home Builders Chairman Ed Brady said in a news release.
Last month’s seasonally adjusted annual rate was 23,000 in the
Northeast, sinking 34 percent from July — the largest month-over-month decline of any region.
The South’s annual rate tumbled 12 percent to 343,000, and the rate in the Midwest fell 2 percent to 81,000.
But
an 8 percent improvement in the West left August’s annual rate there at 162,000.
As of the most-recent month, there were a seasonally adjusted 235,000 new U.S. houses for sale, 2 percent more than in July and 8 percent more than in August 2015.
At the current rate of new home sales, it would take 4.6 months to clear out the inventory of homes for sale. The supply was 4.2 months a month earlier and 5.2 months a year earlier.
August 2016’s median U.S. sales price was $284,000, and the average price was $353,600.
