Having been revised down over the past quarter in the absolute, the seasonally adjusted pace of new single-family home sales in the U.S. ticked up 1.1 percent last month to an annualized rate of 640,000 sales but was down 19.0 percent on a year-over-year basis, 22.2 percent lower than in February of 2021, and 10.6 percent lower than in February of 2020, prior to the pandemic really having hit.
At the same time, while the net number of new homes on the market inched down less than a percent to 436,000, driven by a slowdown in construction, there were 10.1 percent more new homes on the market than there were at the same time last year and over 8 months of inventory, which technically represents a “strong buyer’s market” for those who like that stat.
And having ticked up 2.5 percent from February to $438,200, the median sale price of the new homes that sold last month was 2.7 percent higher than at the same time last year, driven by a shift in the mix and the average sale price down 4.5 percent and dropping.