(Washington) New home sales in the United States continued to rise in May, but their prices continue to slow, according to data released Tuesday by the Commerce Department.
In May, 763,000 new homes found takers at an annualized rate, i.e. projected over the year at this rate. This is better than the 665,000 expected by the market, which was anticipating a drop, according to the consensus published by Briefing.com.
This represents an increase of 12.2% compared to the month of April, for which the data has also been revised downwards slightly.
Over one year, compared to May 2022, the increase is around 20%.
“New home sales hit their highest level since February 2022,” Rubeela Farooqi, chief economist for HFE, noted in a note, “Higher mortgage rates have been a drag on buyers, but costs borrowing are down from their peak” and the stock of available homes remains low.
The number of homes available is 428,000 homes, representing 6.7 months of inventory at the current sales rate.
The median price of a new home fell slightly to $416,300 from $420,800 a month earlier, the lowest since December 2021.
The average price is also down, at $428,000, the lowest since the start of the year.
