Sales of new single-family homes fell in September, but the housing market remains poised to buck seasonal trends nonetheless.
New home sales occurred at a seasonally-adjusted, annual rate of 959,000, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Monday. That represents a 3.5% drop from an downwardly-revised pace of 994,000 homes in August. Compared with last year, new home sales are up 32%.
Last month, the government had reported that new-home sales had exceeded an annual rate of 1 million for the first time since 2006. The government uses a small sample size to produce the new-home sales report, which makes it prone to significant revisions like this.
Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected home sales to increase to a median pace of 1.033 million.
New home sales fell a staggering 28.9% in the Northeast, followed by much smaller declines in the Midwest and the South. Comparatively, the West was the only region to experience an increase in sales with a 3.8% jump.
The decline in September aside, year-to-date new home sales are running nearly 17% ahead of the pace set by this time last year.
The median sales price in July was $326,800, up from August’s median
price. The inventory of new homes was 284,000, representing a 3.6-month
supply at the current pace of sales. A 6-month supply is considered the
benchmark for a balanced market.
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