New home sales in June were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of about 646,000, an increase of 7.0% compared with a revised rate of 604,000 in May and an increase of 4.5% compared with 618,000 in June 2018, according to figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Regionally, and on a year-over-year basis, new home sales were up 19.4% in the West and 9.5% in the South. However, sales plummeted 50% in the Northeast and 17.6% in the Midwest.
The median sales price of new home sold in June 2019 was $310,400. The average sales price was $368,600.
As of the end of June there were about 338,000 new homes available for sale – about a 6.3-month supply at the current sales rate.
“Though there is a clear demand for new homes, builders continue to wrestle with affordability headwinds, including shortages of buildable lots and skilled labor, that are constraining sales,” says Greg Ugalde, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), in a statement.
“The June figures are in line with our forecast predicting a modest 3.5 percent growth in new home sales for 2019, due largely to affordability concerns,” adds Danushka Nanayakkara-Skillington, assistant vice president for forecasting and analysis at NAHB.
Yesterday, the National Association of Realtors reported that existing-home sales in June fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.27 million, down 1.7% compared with May and down 2.2% compared with June 2018.
