New single-family homes sales decreased to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 619,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The May reading was 11.3% below the revised April rate of 698,000 and is 16.5% below the May 2023 estimate of 741,000.
The decline in new home sales was driven by decreases in the Northeast (-43.8%), the South (-12.0%), the West (-4.5%) and the Midwest (-8.6%).
The median price of new houses sold in April 2024 was $417,400 virtually unchanged from April. The average sales price was $520,000, up 3.2% from the previous month.
At the end of May, the seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sales was 481,000 which represents a supply of 9.3 months at the current sales rate.
Read the Census/HUD release.