New single-family home sales took a dive from June to July but still remained above last year’s pace according to the latest housing data released by the Census Bureau.

Monthly sales of new single-family homes fell 13.4 percent in July to a seasonally adjusted rate of 394,000, down from a revised sales rate of 455,000 in June. On an unadjusted basis, new home sales plummeted by 18.6 percent from the previous month.

The seasonally adjusted rate of sales in July was still 6.8 percent higher than the estimated sales rate of 369,000 units in July of 2012. Sales were 6.1 percent higher than in July of last year on an unadjusted basis.

The median sales price of the new homes sold in July was $257,200, which was down slightly from a revised $258,500 in June. The average sales price for a new home in July was $322,700, up from a revised $302,200 in June.

Sixty-two percent of the new single-family homes sold in July were under $300,000, down from 64 percent in June.

In July of last year, the median sales price of a new home was 7.7 percent lower at $237,400, while the average sales price was 12.5 percent lower at $282,300.

All four of the national regions posted decline in seasonally adjusted monthly sales led by a 16.1 percent drop in the West, followed by a decline of 13.4 percent in the South.

The Midwest reported a decline of 12.9 percent while the Northeast posted a decline in sales of 5.7 percent.

Compared to a year ago, two of the four regions showed an improvement with the South posting the largest increase of 16.4 percent followed by the Northeast at 10.0 percent.

The West suffered the only decline of 7.8 percent while the Midwest remained unchanged from a year ago.

Inventory continued to outpace sales with new single-family homes increasing to a seasonally adjusted 171,000 homes available for sale, which translates into a 5.2 months supply of inventory.

Tags: Census Bureau, new home sales, single-family homes, median sales price, average sales price

Source:
Census Bureau

Reported by Chris Moore