New Home Sales at 5 Month Low, Backlog Easing

The sales of new single-family houses fell slightly in July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 298,000.  The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development issued the estimated figure on Tuesday and at the same time revised the June new-home sale rate down to 300,000 from the earlier estimate of 312,000.  The July figure is a decrease of 0.7 percent from the new June number but is 6.8 percent above the July 2010 estimate of 279,000 new homes sold.

There were an estimated 165,000 newly constructed homes for sale in the U.S. at the end of July which represents a 6.6 month supply at the current pace of sales.  These figures are virtually unchanged from June but are a significant improvement over one year earlier when there were 210,000 homes on the market, a 9.0 month supply.  The median marketing period of a home sold during July was 9.4 months compared to 11.2 months in July 2010.

The median sales price of new homes sold in July was $222,000 and the average price was $272,300.  One year ago the median and average sales prices were $212,100 and $252,100 respectively.

On a regional basis, the Northeast was the sole bright spot with sales actually doubling from 14,000 in June to 28,000 in July.  This was, however, 3.4 percent fewer houses than sold during the same period one year earlier.  Sales in the Midwest increased 2.4 percent to 43,000, the same number as sold in July 2010.  Sales were down 7.4 percent from the June level to 163,000 in the South, again identical to the number sold one year earlier.  There were 64,000 homes sold in the West, down from 68,000 in June but a 45.5 percent improvement year-over-year.