The nation’s new home builders started the New Year off on the right foot as new home sales posted a double-digit increase over December according to the latest housing data released by the Census Bureau.
Monthly sales of new single-family homes increased 15.6 percent in January to a seasonally adjusted rate of 437,000, up from a revised sales rate of 378,000 in December. On an unadjusted basis, new home sales increased 14.8 percent from the previous month.
The seasonally adjusted rate of sales in January was 28.9 percent higher than the estimated sales rate of 339,000 units in January of 2012. Sales were also 34.8 percent higher than in January of last year on an unadjusted basis.
The median sales price of the new homes sold in January was $226,400, which was down from a revised $249,800 in December. The average sales price for a new home in January was $286,300, down from a revised $301,500 in December.
Seventy-one percent of the new single-family homes sold in January were under $300,000, up from 58 percent in December.
In January of last year, the median sales price of a new home was 2.1 percent lower at $221,700, while the average sales price was 7.2 percent lower at $265,700.
All four of the national regions posted increases in seasonally adjusted monthly sales led by a 45.3 percent gain in the West, followed by a gain of 27.6 percent in the Northeast.
The Midwest reported tan increase of 11.1 percent while the South posted the smallest increase in sales of 3.2 percent.
Compared to a year ago, all four of the regions also showed improvement with the West posting the largest increase of 60.3 percent followed by the Northeast at 54.2 percent.
The South and the Midwest posted more modest increases of 16.6 and 13.6 perent, respectively.
Inventory of new single-family homes increased slightly to a seasonally adjusted 150,000 homes available for sale, which translates into a 4.9 months supply of inventory, down from a revised 5.6 months supply the previous month.
Tags: Census Bureau, new home sales, single-family homes, median sales price, average sales price
Source:
Census Bureau
Reported by Chris Moore
