Economists were expecting new home sales to fall in July but the actual dat was much worse than expected, according to the Census Bureau…(Census Bureau)
- M-O-M: Sales of new single‐family homes fell 12.6% in July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 511,000, this was the six straight month of declines and sales are now at the lowest level since 2016.
- Y-O-Y: New home sales fell 29.6% when compared to the same time one year ago.
The South dominates…again. Despite a 12% drop from June, the South continues to dominate as they represented 67% of all the sales nationwide in July. The West was number two at 19% followed by the Midwest at 11% and the Northeast at 3.0%.
Inventory rises. Inventory levels were up slightly with a 1.5% gain for the month. However, because the pace of sales dropped so dramatically the months supply saw a more substantial 17% jump to 10.9 moths which is the highest level since 2008.
- Inventory levels are now up 26.4% from one year ago.
Prices rise. The median sales price was up 9.2% to $439,400 in July which is 12.5% higher than the same time one year ago.
- The average sales price was down 2.0% from last month at 446,000 but is down 18.0% from the same time last year.
I don’t think anyone at this point can deny that what Robert Dietz, chief economist at NAHB, said last week was spot on, “Tighter monetary policy from the Federal Reserve and persistently elevated construction costs have brought on a housing recession,”