February new home sales rose in line with expectations, inching up a modest 2 percent from January to 512,000 units at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR), according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
February new home sales rose in line with expectations, inching up a modest 2 percent from January to 512,000 units at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR), according to the U.S. Census Bureau (figure 1). January new home sales were revised upward, from 494,000 units to 502,000 units (SAAR), dampening the initially reported 9.2 percent decline from December to a revised 7.7 percent decline.
February new home sales fell 6.1 percent from a year earlier, although some decline was to be expected – February 2015 was the strongest month for new home sales in seven years (since February 2008). New home sales have trended flat-to-down since then.
Continuing the see-saw pattern of recent months, new home sales and existing home sales again moved in opposite directions in February – new home sales rose while existing home sales fell. New and existing home sales have moved in opposite directions in 10 of the past 14 months.
In a promising trend for home buyers, for-sale inventory of new homes increased 1.7 percent from January and 17.7 percent from a year ago, to 240,000 units (SAAR). This represents the highest inventory level since October 2009, but is still well below historic (1985-2000) monthly averages of 323,000 units (SAAR).
After falling for two months in a row, the median seasonally adjusted price of new homes sold in February edged up, increasing 3.9 percent from January and 2.6 percent from a year ago, to $299,000. The median price remains below its recent peak of $315,800 reported in November 2015.
