New Home Sales Fall in October, Census Bureau Reports

(Image courtesy of Census Bureau; Breakout image courtesy of masgeng/pexels.com)

The U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released residential sales statistics for October 2024, finding that sales for the month were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 610,000.

That’s a 17.3% drop from the revised September rate of 738,000, and a 9.4% decrease year-over-year.

The median sales price of new houses sold in October was $437,300. The average price was $545,800.

The seasonally adjusted estimate of new homes for sale at the end of October was 481,000, a supply of 9.5 months at the current sales rate.

“New home sales are hampered by affordability and will remain weak until mortgage rates drop. However, some areas of higher-than-average new home sales remain in places that are seeing an influx of professionals, such as DFW and Houston. If the incoming administration opens up federal lands to homebuilders, in an effort to kickstart the housing market, new home sales will likely start trending upward,” observed CoreLogic Senior Principal Economist Molly Boesel.

“The new-home market has been a relative bright spot in housing, but a combination of factors converged to sap its momentum in October. Weather-related disruptions and the October surge in mortgage rates have dampened demand, even amid a rise in new-home inventory, which reached its highest point since 2008,” said First American Deputy Chief Economist Odeta Kushi.

 “Looking ahead, builders will continue to benefit from the lack of resale inventory and from their ability to use incentives, such as mortgage rate buydowns, to entice buyers off the sidelines. Builders have a huge competitive advantage over the resale market in this way,” she continued.