Though January’s new home sales dipped below reported numbers for the final month last year, more sold properties were realized than a year prior.
Last month, the seasonally adjusted annual rate for new-single family home sales was 481,000, according to an estimate jointly released by the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Home sales for the inaugural month of 2015 fell below the bureau’s and HUD’s upwardly revised December 2014 rate of 482,000.
Still, the most recent rate was higher than it was in the same 30-day time period last year, when it hit 457,000. The year-earlier number was revised down from 468,000 originally reported.
Average sales prices for these recently purchased residences were $348,300, while last month’s median sales price was $294,300.
Both price tags fell below December’s reported dollar amounts.
Compared to the revised figures for the final month of last year, the average sales price was $30,400 lower, and the median sales price was off $7,800.
The same month last year, however, the revised average sales price on a new house was $337,300, and the median cost was $269,800.
The seasonally adjusted estimate of new homes for sale as of Jan. 31 was 218,000, which was up from December’s downwardly revised estimate of 215,000.
At current sales rate, the end-of-month inventory placed the supply at 5.4 months, which equaled the downwardly revised time frame offered for the year-end inventory in 2014.
