Rising Mortgage Rates, Building Costs Push February New Homes Sales Down

Demand from buyers remains high. But construction companies are struggling to maintain supply. And so the inventory of news home remains low because of shortages of both building materials and labor.

“The new home market is more important than ever as a source of inventory given the historically low level of resale homes available for purchase,” NAHB chairman Jerry Konter said. “However, higher construction costs are hindering new home sales as the cost of lumber, OSB, shingles and other materials rise. Policymakers could help by reducing tariffs on materials as an anti-inflation measure.”

The good news is that new home sales are still above pre-pandemic levels. In addition, new home sales rose substantially in the Northeast, up by 59.3% from the previous month. New home sales also increased by 6.3% in the Midwest.

Those gains were offset, however, as sales in the South fell by 1.7% while new home sales in the West dropped more than 13%.

“New home sales softened in January and February as mortgage rates increased,” NAHB chief economist Robert Dietz said. “NAHB is forecasting additional gains in interest rates as monetary policy meaningfully tightens in 2022, putting additional pressure on housing affordability. However, because there is such limited inventory of existing single-family homes on the market, additional new construction is required to meet demand even as building costs significantly outpace inflation.”

Higher home prices and rising mortgage rates might sideline potential buyers. The median sales price of a new home jumped 10.7% from a year ago, reaching $400,600 in February. The average sales price was $511,000. New-home prices have increased 31% compared to three years ago.

The inventory of new houses for sale at the end of February was an estimated 407,000, 33% above the same year-ago period – a 6.3-month supply at the current sales rate. Just 35,000 of those homes, however, are completed and ready to occupy.

By David Schollaert, David@SteelMarketUpdate.com