New Home Sales Rise in July

(Image courtesy of Census Bureau/HUD; Breakout image courtesy of Oleksandr P/pexels.com)

New single-family home sales in July were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 739,000, per estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

That’s up 10.6% from the revised June rate of 668,000 and up 5.6% from July 2023’s estimate of 700,000.

The median sales price of a new house sold in July was $429,800. The average price was $514,800.

“The housing market’s bright spot–the new home market–continues to shine, outperforming the existing-home market,” noted First American Chief Economist Odeta Kushi. “July new-home sales increased to the highest level since May 2023, while existing-home sales have struggled to gain momentum, remaining near a more than 13-year low. On the other hand, new-home sales in July were 23% above the pre-pandemic, five-year average.”

This report comes a day after July’s existing-home sales data was released.

“Home buying remains near historic lows going into the expectation of a Fed Reserve rate cut in mid-September. While the numbers indicate that demand is flat, the figures don’t tell the whole story. There is a lot of pent-up demand from potential homebuyers waiting for that cut to make an offer. Once that happens, sales will begin to move upwards slowly,” noted Molly Boesel, Principal Economist at CoreLogic