US Home Sales Down Almost 20% In June From Year Ago - Commerce Dept.

Sales of new single-family homes in the United States fell almost 20 percent in June from a year ago, the US Commerce Department reported on Monday as a supply-demand mismatch and high prices of lumber led to fewer sales for a third month in a row

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 26th July, 2021) Sales of new single-family homes in the United States fell almost 20 percent in June from a year ago, the US Commerce Department reported on Monday as a supply-demand mismatch and high prices of lumber led to fewer sales for a third month in a row.

"Sales of new single family houses in June 2021 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 676,000," the US Census Bureau, a unit of the Commerce Department, said, citing figures from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. "This is 6.6 percent below the revised May rate of 724,000 and is 19.4 percent below the June 2020 estimate of 839,000."

Economists polled by US media had forecast sales of 800,000 new single-family homes for June.

"There's a good debate regarding the slowdown in new home sales," economist Adam Button said in a post on ForexLive. "Home builders say that demand and backlogs remain strong but they've changed sales practices because they were caught out by high lumber prices.

Others say that the jump in prices this year has exhausted buyers."

The housing market is one of the cornerstones of the US economy, accounting for nearly 15 percent of Gross Domestic Product. US house prices have risen every year without a blip for nearly ten years, appreciating even during the coronavirus pandemic.

The median price for new single-family homes stood at $361,800 in June, versus the average of $428,700. In April, the median was just $341,600.

Residential construction investment has enjoyed double-digit growth since the third quarter of last year. Even so, home builders deliberately slowed activity from April onward to avoid advance buying of building materials such as lumber, which had rallied more than 300 percent in price earlier this year, data shows. Lumber prices have fallen since, to below $650 per thousand board feet from record highs above $1,700 in May.