Having rebounded a downwardly revised 5.4 percent in August, the pace of new single-family home sales in the U.S. slipped 0.7 percent in September to a seasonally adjusted rate of 701,000 sales but remains 15.5 percent higher than at the same time last year.
At the same time, the median price of those homes which sold last month dropped to $299,400, which was down 8.8 percent on a year-over-year basis with a higher percentage of less expensive homes having recently sold and the inventory of new single-family homes for sale across the county inched down 0.6 percent to 321,000 (which is roughly 1 percent lower than at the same time last year).
Out West, the seasonally adjusted pace of new single-family home sales dropped 3.8 percent in September to 175,000 but remains 11.5 percent higher than at the same time last year with 88,000 new homes on the market (which is 1.1 percent more homes on the market than at the same time last year).
Counterpoint: Home builders haven’t been this optimistic since early 2018 — and falling mortgage rates are the reason
And yet, despite the stated optimism from the sell side, and the fact that mortgage rates remain historically low, the pace of sales slipped and the median price is down.
Home-Improvement Boom Is Forecast to Fizzle: “Renovation and maintenance spending—a barometer of the housing market—are expected to decline for the first time in a decade…remodeling activity is a good barometer of the housing market and consumer confidence.”