U.S. New Home Sales Increase in January
by:Tom Moeller
|in:Economy in Brief
Summary
- Home sales rise for second straight month.
- Sales changes are mixed regionally.
- Median sales price falls sharply.
New single-family home sales during January increased to 670,000 (-19.4% y/y) after rising to 625,000 in December, revised from 616,000. November sales were revised to 583,000 from 602,000. The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected sales of 619,000 new homes for last month.
January’s gain in new home sales reflected varied movement amongst the regions of the country. In the South, sales rose 17.1% (-2.2% y/y) to 451,000 after rising 5.5% in December. This increase was offset by a 19.4% decline (-13.8% y/y) in sales in the Northeast to 25,000 following a 6.1% December weakening. New home sales in the West fell 7.3% (-46.9% y/y) to 127,000 after rising 0.7% in December. Also declining last month, new home sales in the Midwest fell 6.9% (-34.3% y/y) to 67,000 following a 46.9% December surge.
The median price of a new home fell 8.2% last month (-0.7% y/y) to $427,500 after rising 1.6% in December. The price has fallen 13.9% since its October peak of $496,800. The average sales price of a new home weakened 12.8% (-5.3% y/y) to $474,400 following a 3.9% December rise. These sales price data are not seasonally adjusted.
The number of unsold new homes on the market fell 2.9% (+11.4% y/y) to a seasonally adjusted 439,000 units, up from a low of 142,000 in July 2012. The seasonally adjusted months' supply of new homes for sale fell to 7.9 months from a high of 10.1 months in September, but remained up from a low of 3.3 months in August 2020. The median number of months a new home stayed on the market rose to 2.4 from the record low of 1.5 months in both September & October. These figures were down from a high of 5.1 months in March 2021. These data date back to January 1975.
New home sales activity and prices are available in Haver's USECON database. The consensus expectation figure from Action Economics is available in the AS1REPNA database.
Tom Moeller
AuthorMore in Author Profile »Prior to joining Haver Analytics in 2000, Mr. Moeller worked as the Economist at Chancellor Capital Management from 1985 to 1999. There, he developed comprehensive economic forecasts and interpreted economic data for equity and fixed income portfolio managers. Also at Chancellor, Mr. Moeller worked as an equity analyst and was responsible for researching and rating companies in the economically sensitive automobile and housing industries for investment in Chancellor’s equity portfolio. Prior to joining Chancellor, Mr. Moeller was an Economist at Citibank from 1979 to 1984. He also analyzed pricing behavior in the metals industry for the Council on Wage and Price Stability in Washington, D.C. In 1999, Mr. Moeller received the award for most accurate forecast from the Forecasters' Club of New York. From 1990 to 1992 he was President of the New York Association for Business Economists. Mr. Moeller earned an M.B.A. in Finance from Fordham University, where he graduated in 1987. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from George Washington University.
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