New single-family home sales declined to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 609,000 in August, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The August level was 7.6% below the revised July level of 659,000 but 20.6% above the August 2015 level.
Sales fell 34.3% in the Northeast, 12.3% in the South, and 2.4% in the Midwest, but rose 8.0 in the West in August.
The available supply of new homes would cover 4.6 months of sales at the current pace, up from a 4.3 months in July.
The median price of a new home was $284,000 and the average price was $353,600, down 3.1% and up 0.4%, respectively, from the previous month. August’s median price was down 5.4% while the average price was up 1.4% from a year earlier.
