HUD AND CENSUS BUREAU REPORT NEW RESIDENTIAL SALES IN MAY 2017
U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development U.S. Census Bureau
Office of Public Affairs
202-708-0685
June 23, 2017
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Census Bureau today jointly announced the following new residential sales statistics for May 2017:
NEW HOME SALES
Sales of new single-family houses in May 2017 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of610,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau. This is 2.9 percent (±13.0 percent) above the revised April rate of 593,000, and is 8.9 percent (±21.9 percent)* above the May 2016 estimate of 560,000.
SALES PRICE
The median sales price of new houses sold in May 2017 was $345,800. The average sales price was $406,400.
FOR SALE INVENTORY AND MONTHS’ SUPPLY
The seasonally-adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of May was 268,000. This represents a supply of 5.3 months at the current sales rate.
SEASONAL REVIEW (EVERY APRIL RELEASE)
Seasonally adjusted estimates of housing units sold, housing units for sale, and the months' supply of new housing for January 2015 through March 2017 have been revised.
New Residential Sales data for June 2017 will be released on Wednesday, July 26, 2017.
EXPLANATORY NOTES
In interpreting changes in the statistics in this release, note that month-to-month changes in seasonally adjusted statistics often show movements which may be irregular.
It may take three months to establish an underlying trend for building permit authorizations, six months for total starts, and six months for total completions. The statistics in this release are estimated from sample surveys and are subject to sampling variability as well as nonsampling error including bias and variance from response, nonreporting, and undercoverage. Estimated relative standard errors of the most recent data are shown in the tables. Whenever a statement such as “2.5 percent (±3.2 percent) above” appears in the text, this indicates the range (-0.7 to +5.7 percent) in which the actual percentage change is likely to have occurred. All ranges given for percentage changes are 90 percent confidence intervals and account only for sampling variability. If a range does not contain zero, the change is statistically significant. If it does contain zero, the change is not statistically significant; that is, it is uncertain whether there was an increase or decrease. The same policies apply to the confidence intervals for percentage changes shown in the tables. On average, the preliminary seasonally adjusted estimates of total building permits, housing starts and housing completions are revised 3 percent or less. Explanations of confidence intervals and sampling variability can be found at the Census Bureau’s website.
* The 90 percent confidence interval includes zero. In such cases, there is insufficient statistical evidence to conclude that the actual change is different from zero.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCE
The 2017 new home market is off to a stellar start, and home builders are optimistic.Earlier this month, the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) released its Housing Market Index (HMI), a monthly homebuilder confidence survey.
The survey showed homebuilder confidence at its highest point in a decade, with home builders projecting sales for the first half of 2017 near multi-year bests.
Demand for new homes has been strong, too, as evidenced by the high number of buyers requesting tours of model units.
The biggest concern for builders at the moment is whether they can build enough homes to feed the "supply" side of the equation.
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