On Thursday, the Commerce Department reported a significant increase in new home sales in the U.S. for December.
The department announced that new home sales surged 8.0% to an annual rate of 664,000 in December, following a 9.0% decline to a revised rate of 615,000 in November. Economists had anticipated a 9.3% increase to a rate of 645,000, up from the initially reported 590,000 for the prior month.
The Northeast spearheaded the resurgence in new home sales, skyrocketing by 32.0% to an annual rate of 33,000 in December. Sales also increased in the South and Midwest by 10.6% and 9.2%, respectively. However, new home sales decreased in the West by 3.4%.
The Commerce Department also noted that the median sales price for new houses sold in December dropped to $413,200, a decrease of 3.0% from November's $426,000 and a 13.8% decrease from $479,500 the previous year.
The estimated inventory of new houses available for sale at the end of December was 453,000, equating to a supply of 8.2 months at the existing sales rate. This supply is a decrease from 8.8 in November and 8.5 in December 2022.
In a separate report, the National Association of Realtors last Friday revealed a surprising drop in U.S. existing home sales for December. The report showed existing home sales fell by 1.0% to an annual rate of 3.78 million in December, following a 0.8% increase to an annual rate of 3.82 million in November. Economists had predicted that existing home sales would remain constant.
