Steel Markets

New Home Sales Rebound in February

March 30, 2019

Sales of new single-family homes were at an 11-month high in February. Sales rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 667,000, a 4.9 percent gain from January and a 0.6 percent increase from February 2018, the Commerce Department said on Friday.

“This is a welcome bounce back for new home sales…and adds another hill onto the roller-coaster few months the new housing market has experienced,” said John Pataky, executive vice president at TIAA Bank, as quoted by the Wall Street Journal.

Inventory was estimated at 340,000 new houses for sale at the end of February, a 6.1-month supply at the current sales rate.

The monthly supply estimate is a return to stability after the market tapered off in the autumn due to higher interest rates, said chief economist Robert Dietz at the National Home Builders Association.

“The return to the long-run trend for sales and recent declines in mortgage interest rates (now around 4.1 percent) suggest new home sales growth in the months ahead,” said Dietz. “Moreover, looking at the combined January and February data, new home sales thus far in 2019 are running 2.8 percent ahead of the comparable months of 2018.”

Median sales price in February was $315,300 and average sales price $379,600.

From January to February, sales jumped 26.9 percent in the Northeast and 28.3 percent in the Midwest. Sales rose slightly in the South by 1.8 percent and were flat in the West.