There were 743,000 new single-family houses sold in April on a seasonally adjusted basis. This represents a 10.9% increase from March’s revised figure of 670,000 homes and is 3.3% above the 719,000 single-family homes sold in April 2024, according to estimates released Friday by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
The supply of new houses for sale at the end of April fell 0.6% month over month to an estimated 504,000 seasonally adjusted units, which is 8.6% above April 2024’s estimate of 464,000 homes.
Focusing solely on newly built homes, there’s a supply of 8.1 months in the U.S. at the current sales pace. That is 11% below March’s estimate of 9.1 months of supply but 5.2% above April 2024’s estimate of 7.7 months of supply.
The median sales price of new houses sold last month was $407,200, according to the report. That’s a 0.8% gain from March’s median price of $403,700 but is 2% below the $415,300 mark seen the prior year. The average sales price of new houses sold in April was $518,400, which is 3.7% above March’s $499,700 figure and 3.6% above April 2024’s average price of $500,600.
Odeta Kushi, deputy chief economist at First American Financial Corp., said in a commentary that the April new residential sales report beat consensus expectations.
“Builders are off to a better spring than expected, despite higher mortgage rates in April,” Kushi stated.
But Kushi cautioned that the raw data may not tell the whole story. She said the report appears optimistic at first glance, but there are “underlying concerns.”
“The new-home sales report does not adjust figures to account for cancellations of sales contracts,” Kushi observed. “Redfin recently highlighted a rise in home sales cancellations due to affordability challenges and heightened economic uncertainty. This trend suggests that sales figures might be overestimated.”
The optimistic outlook provided by the Census Bureau and HUD data is also at odds with a recent perspective shared by Michael Esienga, CEO of First American Properties.
Citing a 3.2% year-over-year decline in pending home sales in April, combined with a 30.6% year-over-year increase in the total number of active homes for sale, Esienga said he thinks the U.S. housing market may be facing a correction.
“When we examine historical patterns of housing downturns, the trajectory we’re on aligns closely with previous deep national corrections,” Esienga said in a statement released Tuesday.
