New Home Sales Post Highest Yearly
Total Since 2007
January 26, 2017
Sales of newly built, single-family homes
rose 12.2 percent in 2016 to 563,000 units, the highest annual rate since 2007,
according to newly released data by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development and the U.S. Census Bureau. New home sales fell 10.4 percent in
December 2016 to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 536,000 units.
“We are encouraged by the growth in
the housing sector last year, and by the fact that builders increased inventory
by 10 percent in anticipation of future business,” said Robert Dietz, chief
economist of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). “NAHB’s forecast
calls for continued upward momentum this year, with housing starts expected to
rise 10 percent over the course of 2017.”
“To ensure sales continue to move
forward in 2017, builders need to price their homes competitively, especially
given that mortgage interest rates are expected to rise this year,” said NAHB
Chairman Granger MacDonald, a home builder and developer from Kerrville, Texas.
The inventory of new home sales for
sale was 259,000 in December, which is a 5.8-month supply at the current sales
pace. The median sales price of new houses sold was $322,500.
Regionally,
new home sales increased 48.4 percent in the Northeast. Sales fell 1.3 percent in the West, 12.6 percent in the South
and 41 percent in the Midwest.
Source: National Association of
Homebuilders
