August New Home Sales: A Very Strong Showing

• August new home sales rose 7.1% from July and 18 percent from August 2018, to 713,000 sales (SAAR), according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The monthly gain is particularly notable given upward revisions to initially reported July data.
• The median price of new homes sold in August was $328,400, up 2.2% from a year ago.
• Inventory of new homes for sale rose 2.5% from a year ago, to 326,000 - a supply of 5.5 months at current rates.

New home sales cracked 700,000 in August for the second time in three months, just the second such stretch since 2007. This very strong showing was more welcome news for a housing market that has now seen three solid data releases in the span of a week, and may well have been expected given recent positive trends in home construction, low mortgage rates and a still-robust labor market. These solid fundamentals have allowed builders to remain optimistic, even as construction levels lagged for the better part of the year. There's still a lot of 2019 left, and following today’s numbers and the revisions to last month’s release, new home sales remain on pace for their best yearly performance since 2007.