Contracts for new, single-family home sales declined to a 673,000 seasonally adjusted annual rate according to estimates from the joint release of HUD and the US Census Bureau. However, this decline was off a strong 723,000 sale pace in March, making that month’s sales rate the best since the Great Recession. Furthermore, the April rate was the third strongest of this cycle.
In April the price of a new home for sale rebounded from a median US$305,800 to US$342,200, suggesting less use of such incentives and some shift of the sales mix.
Inventory continued to fall in April, declining to 332,000 homes for sale after peaking at 347,000 in January. A year prior, new single-family home inventory stood at 299,000.
The months’ supply measure has come down to a more normalized 5.9. The count of completed, ready-to-occupy new single-family homes in inventory (seasonally adjusted) increased from 61,000 in April 2018 to 77,000 in April 2019.
While this count has stabilized in the early months of 2019, inventory of homes under construction has decreased. Such homes have fallen from 211,000 in January to 188,000 in April.