Sales of newly built homes sank to the slowest rate since the start of the Covid pandemic.
The median price of a new home sold in April was $450,600, an increase of nearly 20% from the year before.
Slower sales caused the inventory of newly built homes to jump sharply as well to a nine-month supply. A six-month supply is generally considered balanced between buyer and seller.
Sales of newly built homes dropped 16.6% in April from March, far more than expected, and were down 26.9% from April 2021, according to the U.S. Census.
The annualized rate came in at 591,000 units, seasonally adjusted. Analysts had been expecting 750,000. March’s read was also revised lower.
That is the slowest sales pace since April 2020, when everything shut down at the start of the Covid pandemic. Sales surged quickly after that, as Americans sought bigger homes with outdoor spaces for quarantining.
