New sales figures and inventory levels are coming out relating to the sale of new single-family homes. According to the NAR, new home sales increased more than 6 percent from September to October, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 430,000, the Census Bureau said today.
At the current sales pace, which happens to be a 5 percent increase from a year ago, the 240,000 or so new homes on the market represented less than 7 months of supply. This was down substantially from 11 months of housing inventory a year ago. Most housing analysts consider a four to six months supply of housing inventory as an even or balanced market between Buyers and Sellers. New home housing supply peaked out at 12.4 months in January of this year.
While the median sale price of a new home also increased for the second month in a row to slightly more than $210,000, this figure is almost identical or unchanged from $213,200 a year ago. The high for new home sales from a price perspective was $247,900 in 2007. We are off roughly 15 percent from this price point.
All in all, inventory is coming back down to historical healthy norms and prices seem to be at a relative bargain! Affordability is higher, but Sellers may not negotiate as much as in past months as we head back well into single digit levels of supply.
