U.S. New Home Sales Pull Back From Upwardly Revised Level In July

(RTTNews) - New home sales in the U.S. decreased from an upwardly revised level in the month of July, according to a report released by the Commerce Department on Monday.

The Commerce Department said new home sales fell by 0.6 percent to an annual rate of 652,000 in July after surging by 4.1 percent to an upwardly revised rate of 656,000 in June.

Economists had expected new home sales to climb by 0.5 percent to an annual rate of 630,000 from the 627,000 originally reported for the previous month.

"New home sales were little changed in July, but the pace of sales was stronger than expected due to upward revisions to sales in June," said Nancy Vanden Houten, Lead U.S. Economist at Oxford Economics. "Price cuts and other builder incentives are keeping a floor under new home sales."

The pullback by new home sales partly reflected weakness in the Midwest, where new home sales plunged by 6.6 percent to an annual rate of 85,000.

New home sales in the South also tumbled by 3.5 percent to an annual rate of 388,000, while new home sales in the Northeast were unchanged at an annual rate of 26,000 and new home sales in the West spiked by 11.7 percent to an annual rate of 153,000.

The median sales price of new houses sold in July was $403,800, down 0.8 percent from $407,200 in June and down 5.9 percent from $429,000 in the same month a year ago, the Commerce Department said.

The report also said the estimate of new houses for sale at the end of July was 499,000, down 0.6 percent from 502,000 at the end of June but up 7.3 percent from 465,000 at the end of July 2024.

The estimate of new houses represents 9.2 months of supply at the current sales rate, unchanged from June but up 16.5 percent from 7.9 months a year ago.

Last Thursday, the National Association of Realtors released a separate report showing an unexpected rebound by existing home sales in the U.S. in the month of July.

The report said existing home sales jumped by 2.0 percent to an annual rate of 4.01 million in July after tumbling by 2.7 percent to an annual rate of 3.93 million in June. Economists had expected existing home sales to decrease by 0.8 percent to an annual rate of 3.90 million.

The unexpected rebound came after existing home sales slumped to their lowest annual rate in nine-months in June.