New Home Sales Rise; Prices Fell in June, Despite Annual Increase

New home sales in June rose to arnseasonally adjusted rate of 497,000 units an increase of 8.3 percentrncompared to sales in May. The June figure was an increase of 38.1rnpercent from June 2012 when the rate of new home sales was estimatedrnat 360,000 units. The US Census Bureau and the Department ofrnHousing and Urban Development also reported a downward revision ofrnthe May sales rate from 476,000 to 459,000 units. With a ±20.5 percent margin of error, revisions aren’t out of the question for the current report as well.</p

The median sales price of homes in Junernwas $249,700 compared to $232,600 in June 2012, but down from last month’s $262,800. The average salesrnprice of a home during June was $295,000, up from $271,800 a yearrnearlier. Sales of homes in the $200,000 to 299,000 price rangerncomprised 32 percent of total sales in June; 33 percent of sales werernpriced below that range</p

The inventory of homes for sale at thernend of the period consisted of 161,000 units, up from 159,000 in May.rnDue to the increased rate of sales the inventory was down from a 4.2rnmonth supply in May to 3.9 months in June Of the 161,000 homesrnavailable for sale, 93,000 are in some stage of construction; 36,000rnare ready for occupancy </p

The pace of new home sales rose 18.5rnpercent in the Northeast on a month-over-month basis in June and werernup 100 percent from one year earlier. Sales in the Midwest droppedrn11.8 percent from May but were up 36.7 percent year-over-year. ThernSouth saw sales increase 10.9 percent and 46.3 percent for the monthrnand year respectively and in the West the increases were 13.8 percentrnand 14.8 percent. </p

On a non-seasonally adjusted basisrnthere were 48,000 new homes sold in June compared to 43,000 in May. More than half of the sales, 26,000 were in the South; 12,000 were inrnthe West, 7,000 in the Midwest and 2,000 in the Northeast.

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