Home » News » USA: sharper than expected increase in new home sales in August

USA: sharper than expected increase in new home sales in August

740,000 new pavilions were sold on an annual basis, 1.5% more than the previous month. Analysts were expecting only 720,000 sales.

New home sales in the United States continued to rise in August, much more than expected, for the second month in a row, while those in July were revised up sharply, according to published figures from the Commerce Department. Friday.

In August, 740,000 new pavilions were sold on an annual basis – an estimate of sales for the whole year if the pace observed in August was maintained – i.e. 1.5% more than the previous month.

The increase is all the stronger since July sales were higher than initially announced, finally reaching 729,000, which represents a growth of 6.4% compared to June, and not of 1%.

Analysts expected an increase, but less, with only 720,000 sales.

However, this remains well below the peak of 993,000 sales recorded in January, and the 977,000 sales recorded in August 2020, in the midst of the real estate boom in the United States.

Historically low interest rates, and the ability for many Americans to telecommute, has indeed caused a real estate rush, especially in small to mid-sized cities.

With too few real estate for sale to meet strong demand, prices soared, also driven by global sourcing issues, which made building materials more expensive.

In August, the median price of a new home remained stable compared to July at 390,900 dollars. Compared with August 2020, it is 20% higher.

Real estate prices, which had been rising steadily since mid-2020, had paused in June, before starting to rise in July.

And the situation should gradually normalize in the coming months, according to economists.

Thus, “the stock of houses for sale increased in August to reach the highest volume since October 2008, although a record share of this stock consists of houses whose construction has not yet started”, observes Nancy Vanden. Houden, economist for Oxford Economics.

The rise in the number of homes for sale “should ease the pressure on prices, and be good news for future sales,” commented Rubeela Farooqi, chief economist for HFE.

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.