Despite last month’s West-led drop in the annual rate of new home sales, a persistently tight inventory was bigger than it’s been in more than six years.
There were a preliminary new 48,000
single-family properties that were sold in March, moving up from an upwardly revised 45,000 the prior month.
New home sales were additionally higher on a year-over-year basis,
increasing from an upwardly revised 46,000 residential properties in March 2015.
The real estate data were delivered Monday jointly by the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The latest activity brought the seasonally adjusted annual rate of new single-family
home sales to 511,000, retreating from a upwardly revised 519,000 in February.
Last month’s rate was much better, however, than the upwardly revised 485,000 in March 2015.
The biggest month-over-month decline was in the West, where sales activity sank 24 percent from February to an annual rate of 107,000.
In the Northeast, sales were flat, leaving March’s seasonally adjusted rate at 26,000.
A 5 percent increase from February put the annual rate in the South at 310,444.
The Midwest experienced a 19 percent surge, leaving its rate in March at 64 percent.
As of March 31, 2016, there were a seasonally adjusted 246,000 new single-family homes
for sale.
U.S. inventory expanded from 241,000 a month earlier and 205,000 a year earlier.
Historical data from the bureau and HUD indicate that the last time the seasonally adjusted inventory was this large was in
September 2009 — when it stood at 252,000.
At the current rate of sales, there was a seasonal adjusted 5.8-month supply of homes for sale in the latest month,
the most months since September 2015’s 5.9 months.
Last month’s average U.S. sales price was $356,200, while the median price of new homes sold in March
was $288,000.
