New home sales defied expectations with a positive turn to end 2022, according to the Census Bureau’s New Residential Sales report.
- M-O-M: Sales of new single‐family houses increased to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 616,000, this is 2.3% above November’s rate and is higher than economist predictions of a 4.0% decline.
- Y-O-Y: Sales of single-family homes end the year down 16.4% compared to the same time last year.
Inventory. The monthly supply of inventory fell to 9.0 months in December, down from 9.2 in November and the lowest level since August. The seasonally-adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of December was 461,000.
- The South made up almost 60% of national inventory levels with 271k homes followed by the West (109k), the Midwest (46k), and the Northeast (34k).
Price. The median sales price of new houses sold in December 2022 was $442,100, down 4.0% from November and is now down 10% from the peak in October ($491,300).