New Home Sales Headed for a Banner Year
Sales of new single-family homes in July declined 3% from an upwardly revised 1.20 million-unit sales pace in June, but they were still the second highest on record.
New houses were sold at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.165 million in July, the Commerce Department reported on Aug. 26, as buyer demand remained strong because of favorable financing and solid gains in house prices.
“This is shaping up to be the best year on record for home sales” said NAHB President Kent Conine.
Coinciding with the lowest mortgage rates in more than four decades, June will probably turn out to be “the high-water mark” for home sales in the current housing cycle, Conine said. However, “builders obviously continued to see lots of demand in July,” he said, including demand from “buyers who jumped off the fence as mortgage rates moved upward.”