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With Mortgage Rates Down, New Home Sales Are Up Again in February

Fueled by falling mortgage rates, sales of new single-family homes climbed 5.8% in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.163 million, the Commerce Department reported last Wednesday. This was a 24.4% increase over the pace a year earlier and 7.2% above last year’s total sales.

“The February report shows that housing demand remains very strong,” said NAHB President Bobby Rayburn, “and with mortgage rates even lower in March, we expect robust sales to continue.”

In addition to affordable housing finance, strong housing demand continues to be stoked by healthy growth in household incomes and solid house price appreciation, according to NAHB Chief Economist David Seiders.

Sales increased 28.5% in the West and 12% in the Northeast. They declined 1.2% in the South and 10.6% in the Midwest.

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Although the inventory of new homes for sale in February inched up to 373,000 units, this represented a low 3.8-month supply at the current sales pace.

“The supply-demand balance in the new-home market remains very, very healthy,” Seiders said. “Less than one-fourth of the inventory is comprised of houses that are actually completed and for sale, and the rest represents units still under construction or not even started. Builders are just keeping pace with demand without overextending production.”


Register for NAHB’s Spring Construction Forecast Conference

See what's on the horizon for the housing industry at the semi-annual gathering of the country's premier economists and finance experts. Get the latest forecasts on housing starts, project budgets and other economic bellwethers at the Spring Construction Forecast Conference on Wednesday, April 21, at the National Housing Center in Washington, D.C. Visit the Web site for more information.

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