New home sales slip

Sales of new single-family houses in August 2017 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 560,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is 3.4% below the revised July rate of 580,000 and is 1.2 % below the August 2016 estimate of 567,000.

The median sales price of new houses sold in August 2017 was $300,200. The average sales price was $368,100. A year ago, those figures stood at $298,900 and $355,100, respectively.

The seasonally-adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of August was 284,000. This represents a supply of 6.1 months at the current sales rate.

On a regional basis, the largest growth was recorded in the Northeast, where year-over-year new home sales increased by an estimated 65.2%. Sales in the South declined 9.2% in the month, as the region looked ahead to what turned out to be devastating storms and flooding.

The report on new home sales followed a previous report on existing home sales, which showed a decline of 1.7% in August.