New Home Sales Down 18.2% in February

Sales of new single family homes fell 18.2% in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 775,000, the U.S. Census Bureau reports.

Despite the month-over-month decline, the rate was 8.2% above February 2020 sales. 

The National Association of Home Builders cited material shortage as a cause for the decline in sales compared with January.

"While rising material costs and other supply-side issues are causing delays for some projects, other factors contributing to the slowdown include the winter storms in areas like Texas and rising mortgage rates which are up more than 30 basis points over the past five weeks," added NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz.

Compared with February 2020, new home sales declined 9.3% in the West, and rose 6% in the Northeast, 24.7% in the Midwest and 23.2% in the South.

The median sales price of new houses sold in February was $349,400, with an average sales price of $416,000.

The estimated number of new houses for sale at the end of February was 312,000, a 4.8 month supply at the current sales pace.

The full report can be found here.