- New home sales soared again July to the best month since October 2007. This is a continued sign that demand for new homes remains solid in a low interest rate, low unemployment environment.
- July’s surge in new home sales continues to support the sentiment that demand for homes is strong despite homebuyers facing low existing inventory.
- Looking past monthly volatility also confirms that July was a great month for new home sales. July shows the 12-month rolling total of new homes sales was the best in eight years and boosts sales to 82% of the 50-year norm.
New home sales in July were at a seasonally adjusted rate of 654,000, which is up 31.3% year-over-year. June’s large jump is a continued sign that demand for new homes remains solid in a low interest rate, low unemployment environment. However, it’s important to note that new home sales numbers from the U.S. Census are extremely volatile: the margin of error is wide and often includes zero, which means we can’t be certain whether these month-over-month or year-over-year changes actually increased, decreased, or stayed flat.
A better number to look at is the 12-month rolling total, which is up 10.6% year-over-year and up 2.7% month-over-month. Even from this vantage, it was the best 12-month rolling total of new homes sales in eight years, and boosted sales to 82% of the 50-year norm. This reflects a steady increase in demand from homebuyers, and should continue to boost homebuilder confidence over the remainder of the year.
