Economic Report: U.S. new home sales retreat in September, partially reversing surprising gain in prior month

The sales of new homes are below a peak of 1.04 million in August 2020.

Year-over-year, new home sales are still down by 17.6%.

New home sales rose a revised 24.7% to 677,000 in August, compared with the initial estimate of a 28.8% jump to 685,000. 

The new home sales data are volatile month-on-month and are often revised. 

Key details: The median sales price of a new home sold in September rose to $470,600, from $436,800 in August. Prices are still below a record high of $479,800 set in July.

The supply of new homes for sale rose by 13.6% between August and September, equating to a 9.2-month supply. 

Regionally, the South led the U.S. in the number of new homes sold, followed by the West, the Midwest, and the Northeast.

Big picture: Mortgage rates surging past 7% has made homeownership unaffordable for many Americans. 

Further, there aren’t that many homes on the market, so buyers don’t have much to choose from. And home prices aren’t falling as much yet, due to the shortage in supply.

Builders are signaling a bleak outlook, hence supply of new homes may be constrained in the future as they potentially pull back construction.

But the market is slowly shifting, as home prices continue to hit the brakes. S&P Case-Shiller reported that home prices fell from July to August by 1.1%.Sellers are contending with the new reality. Real-estate brokerage Redfin recently reported that 7.9% of homes listed on the site for sale each week on average had a price drop.

Market reaction: The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
+0.74%
and the S&P 500
SPX,
+0.19%
were mixed in early trading on Tuesday. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note
TMUBMUSD10Y,
4.033%
was above 4%.

The homebuilder ETF,
XHB,
+0.10%,
was down, while builder stocks, including D.R. Horton, Inc.
DHI,
+0.42%,
Lennar Corp
LEN,
+0.53%,
PulteGroup Inc.
PHM,
-0.43%,
and Toll Brothers Inc.
TOL,
-0.07%
moved higher during morning trading.