Latest New Home Sales Data Are Mixed

The seasonally adjusted rate of new single-family home sales in February dropped about 4.6% to 411,000 from a slight downward revision of the January rate to 431,000, but the latest month’s sales in this category were still up by approximately 12.3% compared to a year ago.

A year ago, the seasonally adjusted rate of new single-family home sales for February came in at just 366,000, according to the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of February 2013 was 152,000. This represents a supply of 4.4 months at the current sales rate.

The median sales price of new houses sold in February 2013 was $246,800; the average sales price was $313,700. The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of February was 152,000.

The month-to-month drop in new home sales was slightly steeper than the 4% forecast by macroeconomic researchers at Barclays. They had estimated 4.3 months of supply.

Estimates for medians are in the process of being revised and there are plans to release revisions of these for months dating back to January 2010 starting with the April data release.