The seasonally adjusted pace of new single-family home sales in the U.S. dropped 9.3 percent from November to 625,000 in December but was still 14.1 percent higher versus December 2016, down from 26.6 percent higher on a year-over-year basis in November.
At the same time, the December pace was 5.3 percent below the long-term sales average as measured at the end of the year (660,000) and 64.3 percent below the record-high pace of 1,242,000 sales set in 2005, while the number of new single-family homes for sale across the county inched up to 295,000, which is the most available inventory since May of 2009 and 15.2 percent higher versus at the end of 2016.
Out West, the annual pace of new single-family home sales dropped 9.5 percent in December to 190,000, which was still 18.8 percent higher on a year-over-year basis. The pace of existing-home sales in the West declined at the end of the year as well.