
The sales of new single-family houses in June were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 617,000, according to estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
This estimate is 0.6% below the revised May rate of 621,000 and is 7.4% below the June 2023 estimate of 666,000.
“Home builders are pricing homes to sell, but they're finding fewer buyers. The problem is that high mortgage rates continue to make it hard for people to afford monthly payments on new homes. In June, 46% of new homes sold for less than $400,000, compared to 43% in all of 2023,” says Holden Lewis, home and mortgage expert at NerdWallet.
The median sales price of new houses sold in June was $417,300, while the average sales price was $487,200.
“Builders are trying to appeal to buyers by constructing smaller, closer-together and less-expensive homes. But with mortgage rates averaging just under 7% in June, buyers struggled with affordability. Mortgage rates have fallen in July, and we might see an uptick in new home sales in the July report,” Lewis adds.
The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of June was 476,000, which represents a supply of 9.3 months at the current sales rate.