Sales of new single-family homes declined 4.4% (+14.3% y/y) during February to 765,000 (AR) from 800,000 in January, revised from 764,000. The Action Economics survey expected sales of 754,000.

The median price of a new home rose 6.3% (7.8% y/y) last month to a record $345,900. The average price of a new home also increased to a record of $403,800 (5.3% y/y). The home price figures are not seasonally adjusted.

Sales activity was mixed across the country in February. Sales in the West declined 17.2% (+24.7% y/y) to 222,000 units. In the Midwest, sales fell 7.3% (+15.6% y/y) to 89,000. Working the other way, sales in the Northeast jumped 38.9% (47.1% y/y) to 50,000 while sales in the South edged 1.0% higher (6.3% y/y) to 404,000.

The supply of homes on the market rose to 5.0 months in February, but the January figure was revised down to 4.8 months. These figures were below the high of 7.4 months at the end of 2018. The medium number of months that a new home was for sale held steady at 3.3, down from 14 months at the beginning of the economic expansion.

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

Federal Reserve issues FOMC statement (here).