“Mortgage rates rose in February, and the elevated rates took a bite out of new home sales,” said Holden Lewis, home expert at NerdWallet. “They declined slightly from the previous month, although sales were 6% stronger than 12 months earlier. Builders are competing with home resales by constructing new homes for buyers on a limited budget.”
Price and inventory trends
Robert Dietz, chief economist of the National Association of Home Builders, noted that NAHB’s latest builder survey found that roughly one-quarter of builders also reported cutting home prices in March.
“The price cuts, in combination with building slightly smaller homes, can be seen in today’s data that show a 7.6% year-over-year decline for median new home prices,” Dietz said.
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The median sales price of a new house decreased by 7.6% year over year to $400,500. Meanwhile, the supply of new homes available for sale rose to 463,000 – the highest level since October 2022.
Source: mpamag.com