Housing market improvement continued during June. Sales of new single-family homes increased 3.5% (25.4% y/y) to 592,000 (SAAR) from 572,000 in May, revised from 551,000. Sales of 557,000 had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey.

The median price of a new home recovered 6.2% to $306,00 (6.1% y/y) following May's 9.8% decline. The average price of a new home increased 1.9% to $358,200 (8.8% y/y).

The decline in new home sales was paced by a 5.6% drop in the Northeast to 34,000 (30.8% y/y) which added to the prior month's decline. Sales in the South eased 0.3% (+21.1% y/y) to 321,000 following three months of firm increase. Countering these declines was a 10.9% increase (24.6% y/y) in the West to 152,000 which recouped the prior month's decline. Sales in the Midwest also firmed 10.4% (44.1% y/y) to 85,000 which added to May's m/m rise by roughly one quarter.

The months' supply of homes at the current sales rate declined to 4.9, the lowest level since February of last year. The median number of months a new home was on the market eased to 3.8 (NSA).

The data in this report are available in Haver's USECON database. The consensus expectation figure from the Action Economics Forecast Survey is available in the AS1REPNA database.