• June new home sales rose 0.8 percent from May and 9.1 percent from a year ago, to 610,000 (SAAR), according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Sales data from each of the past three months were revised downward.
• Inventory of newly built homes for sale rose 11.9 percent from a year ago, to 272,000 homes, the largest annual gain in a year. There are more new homes for sale currently than at any point since June 2009.
• The median, seasonally adjusted price of new homes sold in June was $310,800, down more than 5 percent from May and down 3.6 percent from a year ago.

The inventory squeeze that’s driving sales of existing homes down seems to be acting as a decent pick-me-up for the new home sales market, with some of those buyers unable to find an existing home to buy last month likely turning instead to the new construction market. Inventory of new homes for sale was also up in June, while median prices were down somewhat. On the surface, that adds up to a largely positive story for buyers, who will likely take any good news they can get at this point. But a closer look reveals that much of the same problems afflicting the existing home sales market are also present in the new sales segment. Almost 70 percent of new homes sold in June were sold before they were finished or had even begun construction, an indicator of intense demand similar to the hunger for existing homes. And this says nothing of the fact that because these homes aren’t finished, they won’t be move-in ready for months, meaning owners of existing homes that are moving into these new homes will not be in much rush to list their current home and sell to someone else. And while there are more new homes for sale now than at any point since June 2009, that’s not saying much — aside from the lean years during the crash and in the slow recovery to follow, there are roughly as many new homes available for sale today as there were in April 1993 when Bill Clinton was president. The median price of new homes is falling, a signal that builders could be aiming for a more entry-level clientele, but new home prices still remain well above existing home prices, and the biggest growth in recent new home sales activity has been in the pricey $500,000-$700,000 segment. New homes are not a perfect substitute for existing homes, for many reasons, and buyers not satisfied by one won’t necessarily find what they’re looking for in the other.