Having dropped an upwardly revised 5.6 percent in July, the seasonally adjusted rate of new single-family home sales in the U.S. slipped another 3.4 percent in August to an annual rate of 560,000 sales which is 1.2 percent below the pace at the same time last year.
Last month’s pace was 13.8 percent below the long-term average for this time of the year (650,000) and 53.8 percent below the record-high pace of sales as measured in August (1,255,000) which was set in 2005.
At the same time, the number of new single-family homes for sale across the county ticked up another 3.4 percent to 284,000 which is the most available inventory since May of 2009 and 17.8 percent higher versus the same time last year.
In the West, the annual pace of new single-family home sales dropped 2.7 percent to 146,000 in July but remains 4.3 percent higher versus the same time last year.