WASHINGTON – The pace of new single-family home sales fell by 3.4% to 560,000 at a seasonally adjusted annual rate in August, following a modest upward revision to the sales pace in the previous month, data released by the Commerce Department Tuesday showed.
The sales pace was well below expectations of 581,000, based on an MNI survey of economists.
The supply of new homes for sale rose by 3.6% to 284,000 in August. Based on the movements in sales and supply in August, the months supply jumped to 6.1 months from 5.7 months in July, well above the 5.1 months supply a year ago.
Despite the increase in supply, the median sales price of new homes fell by 6.2% to $300,200 in August but was up 0.4% from August 2016.
Sales fell by 2.6% in the Northeast, by 4.7% in the large South region and by 2.7% in the West region, while the Midwest was unchanged.
New home sales in July were revised up to a 580,000 rate from the 571,000 rate previously reported, while June sales were revised down to a 614,000 rate from the 630,000 pace previously reported. May sales were revised down to a 606,000 pace from the previously reported 618,000 rate.
Year-to-date sales, before seasonal adjustment, were up 7.5% from the same eight month period a year ago.
The Commerce Department released a statement explaining that in their Survey of Construction for single-family permits sampled in August, information on the "sales status at the end of August was collected for only about 65% of cases in the Texas and Florida counties." Normally, the information sampled is observed at 95%. This could affect the number of houses not yet started and for data about houses under construction and completions for the months to come.
