New Home Sales an Astounding 19.5% Higher Year-Over-Year

The good news in housing continued this morning with arnreport on May new home sales.  Accordingrnto the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) salesrnof newly constructed homes rose 2.2 percent compared to April to a seasonallyrnadjusted annual rate of 546,000 units. rnMay sales were thus a somewhat astounding 19.5 percent higher than inrnMay 2014 when the rate was 457,000 units. rnApril’s sales, already estimated at 6.4 percent higher than March wasrnrevised upward from 517,000 units to 534,000. rnOn a non-seasonally adjusted basis sales were estimated at 51,000, thernsame as in April.</p

The May numbers came in above even the highest numbersrnpredicted by analysts in an Econoday survey. rnThose numbers ranged from 505,000 to 540,000 with a consensus atrn525,000.</p

The May increase was driven primarily by a surge in sales inrnthe Northeast.  On a seasonally adjustedrnannual basis sales there increased 87.5 percent from March but, paradoxically,rnwere 21.1 percent lower than in May 2014. rnSales were down month-over-month by 5.7 percent in the Midwest and werern12.0 percent lower than in the previous May. rnSales decreased 4.3 percent for the month in the South but werernprecisely one-third higher than the previous year.  The West rose both on a monthly and annualrnbasis by 13.1 percent and 25.5 percent respectively.</p

The Census/HUD report said there were 206,000 new homes forrnsale at the end of the reporting period, an estimated 4.5 month supply.  Both numbers were essentially unchanged from thosernin April.</p

The median sales prices of a new home sold in May wasrn$282,800 and the average price was $337,000. rnThe median and average prices of homes sold in May 2014 were $285,600rnand $323,500 respectively.

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