New home sales are down as more residences for sale are spending extended periods on the market, according to a pair of new data reports.
Sales of new single-family houses in August were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 716,000, according to estimates published by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is a 4.7% drop from the revised July rate of 751,000, but it is also 9.8% above the August 2023 estimate of 652,000.
The median sales price of new houses sold in August was $420,600 while the average sales price was $492,700. The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of August was 467,000, which represents a supply of 7.8 months at the current sales rate.
Separately, data from Redfin (NASDAQ: RDFN) determined that nearly half (48%) of all listings have lingered on the market for at least 60 days, the highest share for any August since 2019. This is up from 43.2% in August 2023 and the fifth straight month in which the share of homes sitting for at least 60 days posted an annual increase.
Nearly seven out of every 10 homes (68.5%) on the market last month had been sitting for at least 30 days, up from 63.9% a year ago. It was the sixth consecutive month that the share of month-old listings increased and the highest share for any August since before the pandemic in 2019.
The typical home was listed for 37 days before going under contract in August, six days longer than one year earlier. But listing times varied between markets – the typical Seattle home was snatched up in 12 days in August, the quickest result of the 50 most-populous metros that Redfin analyzed, while homes in West Palm Beach, Florida, spent a median 79 days on the market before finding a buyer.
“We usually see home sales pick up when mortgage rates fall, but this year we are seeing the opposite – sales are dropping and homes are sitting longer on the market,” said Redfin Senior Economist Sheharyar Bokhari. “Last week’s big interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve will give buyers a boost in confidence, but it remains to be seen whether sales will speed up in any meaningful way as we move into the slower Fall season.”
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