The US Census Bureau and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development released July’s New Residential Sales report showing that new home sales of single-family houses were up 1% in July but down 27% year over year. The median sales price of homes sold in July was $390,500 which is up 18% year over year. Inventory of homes at the end of July was 367,000, which represents a supply of 6.2 months at the current sales pace or rate. Builders are certainly having difficulties putting up lower priced homes as it seems more higher priced homes are selling which is inflating the median price. The next scheduled report is due to release on September 24, 2021.
The National Association of Realtors released their Existing Home Sales report for the month of July showing that closings on existing homes were up 2%. Year over year sales were up 1.5%. Inventory of existing homes is slightly increasing as well, as there were 1.32 million homes for sales in July, which is up 7% from June, but still down about 12% from July 2020. Median home price was $359,900 which is up 18% year over year, but down from the 24% in last month’s report. Looking deeper into the report, first time home buyers made up 30% of sales, cash buyers were 23%, and investors purchased 15% of homes. Some experts are saying that investors could be gobbling up the lower priced homes which may be pushing out some first time home buyers.
There is no secret, home buyer demand is still very strong and even though they are getting better, inventories are still very tight. With the current dynamics of market conditions, including low interest rates, we still see a very healthy and strong housing market.
Sources:
http://bit.ly/2sq38xg
http://bit.ly/2MJU6mf
By: Jon Iacono