New Single-Family Sales Up +13% Compared to May 2019
Sales of new single-family homes in the United States jumped +17% month-over-month to an annualized rate of 676 thousand in May of 2020.
However, data for April was revised sharply lower to 580 thousand, from 623 thousand. Still, May’s figure is the highest in three months.
Sales jumped +46% in the Northeast (to 32 thousand), +29% in the West (to 169 thousand), and +15% in the South (to 402 thousand) but fell -6% in the Midwest (to 73 thousand).
There were 318,000 new homes on the market, down -2.2% from April. At May’s sales pace it would take 5.6 months to clear the supply of houses on the market.
The median new house price rose to US$317,900 from US$312,700 a year ago.
Year-on-year new home sales jumped +12.7%.
United States New Home Sales: May 2020
Sales of Previously-Owned Homes Down -27% Compared to May 2019
“Home sales will surely rise in the upcoming months with the economy reopening, and could even surpass one-year-ago figures in the second half of the year”.
Lawrence Yun, US National Association of Realtor’s chief economist
United States Existing Home Sales: May 2020
Sales of previously owned houses in the US dropped -9.7 from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.91 million units in May of 2020. Declines were seen in all regions, although the Northeast experienced the greatest drop.
Year-on-year, sales were down -26%.
The median existing-home price for all housing types in May was $284,600, up +2.3% from May 2019 (US$278,200).
Total existing housing inventory at the end of May totalled 1.55 million units, up +6% from April, and down -19% from one year ago.
