New Home Sales Rebound in July

The July release for new home sales from the Census Bureau came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 714,000 units, up 4.4% month-over-month from a revised rate of 684,000 in June. The reported sales figure is above the forecast of 705,000. The median home price is now at $436,700, up $20,000 from June on a nominal basis.

Here is the opening from the report:

New Home Sales
Sales of new single‐family houses in July 2023 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 714,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is 4.4 percent (±12.8 percent)* above the revised June rate of 684,000 and is 31.5 percent (±16.3 percent) above the July 2022 estimate of 543,000.
Sales Price
The median sales price of new houses sold in July 2023 was $436,700. The average sales price was $513,000. [
Full Report]

For a longer-term perspective, here is a snapshot of the data series, which is produced in conjunction with the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The data since January 1963 is available in the St. Louis Fed's FRED repository here. We've included a six-month moving average to highlight the trend in this highly volatile series.

New Home Sales

Over this time frame, we see the steady rise in new home sales following the 1990 recession and the acceleration in sales during the real estate bubble that peaked in 2005. Starting in 2011, there was a similar rise in new home sales that peaked near the end of 2020 and retracted for about 2 years. The most recent trend in new home sales has been one of steady growth, with new home sales increasing 8 of the past 10 months.