United States New Home Sales

Last Release

Dec 31, 2024

Actual

698

Units In

Thousand units

674

Frequency

Monthly

Next Release

Feb 26, 2025

Time to Release

28 Days 14 Hours

Highest	Lowest	Average	Date Range	Source
1,389 Jul 2005	270 Feb 2011	656.21 Thousand units	1963-2024	U.S. Census Bureau

A sale of the new house occurs with the signing of a sales contract or the acceptance of a deposit. The house can be in any stage of construction: not yet started, under construction, or already completed. New home sales account for about 10 percent of the US housing market. New single-family home sales are extremely volatile month-to-month and preliminary figures are subject to large revisions because they are mostly drawn from building permits data.

Latest Updates

Sales of new single-family homes in the United States rose by 3.6% from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 698,000 in December of 2024, the most since September, and firmly above market expectations of 670,000. The rise was despite the surge in benchmark mortgage rates in the period, which were aligned with market concerns that high inflation would force the Fed to remain hawkish for the meantime. Sales growth was carried by the West (20.3% to 154,000) and the Northeast (41.7% to 34,000), while sales were slightly lower in the South (-2.1% to 423,000) and the Midwest (-3.3% to 87,000). The median price for homes was $427,000, while the average sales price was $513,600. In turn, the inventory of homes for sale was 494,000, equivalent to 8.5 months at the current sales rate.