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New home sales reach highest mark in a decade

2/20/2018

Sales of new single-family homes rose 6.2% in October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 685,000 units from the downwardly revised September reading, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau.


The current pace is the highest since October 2007 while year-to-date new home sales have increased 8.9% compared to the same period a year ago. This also marks the third straight month of increases.


“The October report shows strong sales growth at entry-level price points,” Granger MacDonald, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder and developer from Kerrville, Texas, said in prepared statement. “In markets where builders are able to provide homes for families with different household budgets, they can fulfill a growing demand for housing.”  


“There is solid growth in the number of sales contracts signed before construction has begun, a strong indicator that new single-family home production should continue to grow as we look ahead to 2018,” said NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz.


The inventory of new homes for sale was 282,000 in October, which is a 4.9-month supply at the current sales pace. New home sales increased in all four regions: sales soared 30.2% in the Northeast, grew 17.9% in the Midwest, 6.4% in the West, and 1.3% in the South.


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