After the post-lockdown boom in new home sales seen around the country, the seasonally adjusted annual rate of single-family home sales is finally slowing. But the rate is still far outpacing last year.
The seasonally adjusted annual rate of new single-family home sales in November was reported at 841,000 Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development. The rate is 11 percent lower than it was in October, but 20.8 percent higher than the same month in 2019.
New-home sales far outpacing last year’s data is a stark reminder of how the current economic climate is impacting segments of the population in different ways, according to Holden Lewis, the home and mortgage expert at personal finance website NerdWallet.
“New-home sales are soaring during this recession, and they plummeted in the last one,” Lewis said. “This downturn is hitting unequally, with tens of thousands of people buying brand-new homes each month, while millions of renters risk eviction.”
The boom in new home sales drove the median price of all new single-family homes up 2.2 percent year over year to $335,300.
Inventory for new single-family homes remains higher than for all housing types. At the end of November, the seasonally adjusted estimate of new homes for sale was 286,000, which represents a supply of 4.1-months at the current pace of sales.
