New Home Sales Up 5.7% in September, Reaching a 2.5 Year High
Sales of new single-family houses were up 5.7 percent in September to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 389,000 units, but in announcing the increase the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development also revised their earlier estimate for August down from 373,000 to 368,000 units. The September figure is a 27.1 percent increase over the new home sales estimate of 306,000 units in September 2011. On a non-seasonally adjusted basis sales totaled 31,000 compared to 24,000 units in September 2011.
Sales were up in three of the four regions with only the Midwest region posting a lower rate of sales, down 37.3 percent from the previous month and 31.9 percent lower than one year earlier. In the Northeast sales were up 16.7 percent month-over-month and 75.0 percent year-over-year. Sales in the South were 16.8 percent higher than in August and 24.3 percent higher than in September 2011; the Western region was up 3.9 percent and 62.1 percent respectively.
The median sales price of new houses sold in September was $242,300 compared to $217,000 a year earlier and the average price was $292,400, up from $255,400.
There were 145,000 new homes for sale at the end of September compared to 160,000 in September 2011. The current inventory represents a 4.5 month supply compared to a 6.3 month backlog one year earlier.