New home sales plummeted in July from both the month and year before, according to the latest joint report from the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Sales of new single-family houses decreased to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 571,000 in July. This is down 9.4% from June’s 630,000 sales and 8.9% from the July 2016’s estimate of 627,000 sales.
Click to Enlarge
(Source: U.S. Census Bureau, HUD)
But despite the slowdown in home sales, the median sales price of new homes sold increased to $313,700 in July, up from $310,800 in June. The average sales price came in at $371,200 in July.
The seasonally adjusted estimate of new homes for sale by the end of July improved, moving from June’s 272,000 homes to 276,000 homes. This represents an increase from 5.4 months of supply last month to 5.8 months of housing supply at the current sales rate. Most economists believe 6 months of supply represents a balanced market.
