November New Home Gain Overshadowed by October Revision

Newly constructed single-family homes continued to sell well in November however October's earlier robust report was scaled down dramatically.  The Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates that new homes sold at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 490,000 in November an increase of 4.3 percent compared to October and 9.1 percent above the rate in November 2014.  October's sales numbers were downgraded from the 498,500 units originally reported to 470,000 turning a 10.7 increase over September into a more modest 6.3 percent gain.

The November number was solidly within the range of 479,000 to 531,000 units predicted by analysts but fell below the consensus of 505,000.

On a non-seasonally adjusted basis there were an estimated 34,000 homes sold during the month, down from 38,000 in October.  Homes that sold during the month were on the market for a median of 3.0 months.

The median price of a new home sold in November was $305,000 compared to $302,700 in November 2014.  The average prices were $374,900 and $358,800 respectively.

At the end of the reporting period there were an estimated 232,000 new homes available for sale.  This is a 5.7 month supply at the current sales pace.

On a regional basis sales dropped by 28.6 percent from October and 13.8 percent from a year earlier in the Northeast. The Midwest also had sales that were below the two earlier periods, down 8.6 percent for the month and 10.2 percent on an annual basis. 

Sales in the South improved by 4.5 percent month over month and 19.4 percent from the previous November.  It was sales in the West that drove the national increase, rising 20.5 percent from October and up a more restrained 4.7 percent for the year.