The seasonally adjusted pace of new single-family home sales in the U.S., which hit a 14-year high in July/August, has since dropped 14 percent to an annualized rate of 842,000 sales at the end of December but remains 15.2 percent higher than at the same time last year, and was up 1.6 percent from November, but with the smallest year-over-year gain in 9 months.
At the same time, the median price of the homes which sold last month ticked up 3.5 percent to $355,900 but and was 8.0 percent higher than at the same time last year, but with a higher percentage of more expensive homes having sold (as has been the case for existing-home sales as well).
And with fewer homes sold than were built, the inventory of new single-family homes for sale across the county ticked up 4.1 percent to 302,000, which is a 7-month high but down 6.2 percent on a year-over-year basis (which is in stark contrast to inventory levels in San Francisco).
