Sales of new single-family homes in May continued to rebound from a COVID-19-influenced low in April, according to data released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Year over year, the May sales figures were far ahead of May, 2019, according to the data.
Sales of new single-family homes were reported at a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 676,000, an increase of 16.6 percent month-over-month and 12.7 percent year-over-year.
“This was the strongest May for new home sales since 2007, despite the COVID-19 pandemic,” Holden Lewis, the home and mortgage specialist at personal finance website NerdWallet, said in a statement. “Despite stay-home orders and high unemployment, people were out there, buying newly constructed homes.”
The median sales price for new, single-family homes sold was $317,900 in May. The average sales price was reportedly $368,800.
At the end of the month, there was 5.6 months of supply at the current sales rate.
“Despite the high unemployment rates and economic recession, buyers remain undeterred from shopping, which may be in part because the supply of existing homes on the market is limited and consumers might be more comfortable during the pandemic touring newly built homes,” John Pataky, an executive vice president at TIAA Bank, said in a statement. “This doesn’t mean that we’re due for a quick recovery in the housing market, but this is one good sign in a month where there weren’t many for the market.”
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