New-home sales dropped to an all-time low in July, federal agencies announced today, following on the heels of a National Association of Realtors’ report of a record low sales rate for resale homes.
The seasonally adjusted annual sales rate for new, single-family homes tumbled an estimated 32.4 percent year-over-year in July, to 276,000, and fell an estimated 12.4 percent compared to June 2010, the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reported today.
This rate is a projection of a monthly sales total over a 12-month period, adjusted to account for seasonal variations in sales activity. The agencies note that changes in the seasonally adjusted statistics have varying reliability based on the limited data gathered, are subject to revisions, and can show irregular movement. It can take four months to establish a trend for new homes sold.
The July rate represents an 80.1 percent falloff from the peak rate five years ago. In July 2005 the new-home sales rate reached 1.39 million.
Meanwhile, NAR reported Tuesday that sales rate of resale single-family homes, townhomes, co-ops and condos plummeted 25.5 percent year-over-year in July and fell 27.2 percent compared to the previous month.
Regionally, Census and HUD reported that the sales rate for new, single-family homes fell an estimated 54.6 percent in the West, 26.6 percent in the South, 24.4 percent in the Northeast and 21.4 percent in the Midwest year-over-year in July.
And the rate dropped 25.4 percent in the West, 13.9 percent in the Northeast, 8.7 percent in the South and 8.3 percent in the Midwest from June 2010 to July 2010.
The monthly supply of new, single-family homes for sale at the end of July, at 210,000, represented a 9.1 months’ supply at the July sales rate, up from an eight months’ supply in June and 7.9 months’ supply in July 2009.
The estimated median new-home price, at $204,000 in July, fell 6 percent compared to June and 4.8 percent compared to the July 2009 median price. And the average new-home price, at $235,300 in July, fell 5.2 percent compared to June and 13.2 percent compared to July 2009.
