Sales of new single-family homes continued to soar in October, clocking in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 999,000, an astounding 41.5 percent above the estimate for October 2019.
Despite the sales figure far outpacing last year’s numbers, the rate of new residential home sales was actually down 0.3 percent from last month’s figure, according to data released Wednesday jointly by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
“September and October were the hottest two consecutive months of new home sales since 2006,” said Holden Lewis, the home and mortgage expert at personal finance website NerdWallet. “Homebuilders are selling homes just about as fast as they can, even though we’re in a recession. We could see a slowdown in early 2021 as builders ramp up construction.”
The median sales price for all new homes sold in October 2020 was $330,600 — up slightly from $326,800 in the prior month — while the average sales price was $386,200.
Supply continues to be an issue, with an estimated 3.3-months of supply at the current sales rate at the end of the month, down from 3.6-months supply at the end of September.
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