The seasonally adjusted pace of new single-family home sales in the U.S. ticked up 7.2 percent last month to an annualized rate of 670,000 sales but was still down 19.4 percent on a year-over-year basis, 32.5 percent lower than at the start of 2021, and 13.4 percent lower than in January 2020, prior to the pandemic really having hit.
At the same time, while the net number of new homes on the market ticked down 2.9 percent to 439,000, driven by a slowdown in construction, there were 11.4 percent more new homes on the market than there were at the same time last year and 10.0 months of inventory, which technically represents a(n extra) “strong buyer’s market” for those who like that stat.
And having dropped 8 percent from December to $427,500, the median sale price of the new homes that sold last month was down a percent, year-over-year.