New Home Sales in May Decreased 3.7% from May 2018

June 25, 2019 ‐ The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development jointly announced the following new residential sales statistics for May 2019.

New Home Sales
Sales of new single‐family houses in May 2019 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 626,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is 7.8 percent (±14.7 percent) below the revised April rate of 679,000 and is 3.7 percent (±15.0 percent) below the May 2018 estimate of 650,000.

Sales Price
The median sales price of new houses sold in May 2019 was $308,000. The average sales price was $377,200.

For Sale Inventory and Months’ Supply
The seasonally‐adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of May was 333,000. This represents a supply of 6.4 months at the current sales rate.

Comments
Expectations were for a rebound from April sales after a 6.9 percent downturn from March. Analysts polled by Econoday were looking for results in a range from 649,000 to 710,000 with a consensus of 680,000.

On a non-adjusted basis there were 60,000 newly constructed homes sold in May compared to 67,000 in April. On a year-to-date basis, sales are up 4.0 percent at a total of 302,000. At the same point in 2018 sales had totaled 291,000.

Sales in the Northeast were up 17.6 percent from April and 15.2 percent year-over-year. There were 6.3 percent and 2.4 percent gains respectively in the Midwest and the South saw increases of 4.9 percent and 1.3 percent. The West countered all of those positive numbers with a 35.9 percent nosedive in sales compared to April and a 17.2 percent loss on an annual basis.