• New home sales fell 11.5 percent in September from August, to 468,000 units (SAAR). The drop was far more severe than expected, and previous months’ sales were also revised downward.
• September was the second consecutive month that new and existing home sales moved in opposite directions.
• The median price of new homes sold in September increased 1.4 percent month-over-month, and 13.5 percent from September 2014, to $293,700 – the strongest annual gain in the median price of new homes since August 2014. But through the first nine months of 2015, median new home prices are flat compared to the same period last year.

New home sales declined much more than expected in September, falling 11.5 percent from August to 468,000 units at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR), according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Sales figures for the summer months were also revised downward, with August sales re-stated by 23,000 units to 529,000 units (SAAR) – diminishing August’s initially reported 9.7 percent monthly increase to 5.2 percent. Compared to last September, new home sales were up 2.0 percent, their weakest year-over-year gains since November 2014 (figure 1).

It was the second consecutive month, and fifth of the past seven months, that existing and new home sales moved in opposite directions: Existing home sales, reported last week, strongly beat expectations in September. Combined existing and new home sales – not typically reported – increased 3.2 percent over August, and is up 8.3 percent from a year earlier.

The median price of new homes sold in September increased 1.4 percent to $293,700, up 13.5 percent from last September. It was the strongest annual gain in the median price of new homes sold since August 2014, but still below the recent high of $307,700 in November 2014. Through the first nine months of 2015, the median sale price of new homes has been essentially flat compared to the same period in 2014, a welcome sign for consumers after prices increased steadily between early 2012 and the end of 2014.