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Sales of newly constructed homes fell by 12.6% in July from June and were down 29.6% from a year ago, according to a joint report from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and the US Census Bureau. It was the second consecutive month of declines.
Only 511,000 new homes were sold last month, down from a revised 585,000 in June. A year ago 726,000 newly constructed homes were sold.
Meanwhile, the median price for a new construction home rose to $439,400, up from $402,400 the previous month.
Sales have been trending lower as prospective buyers see their budgets stretched thin by long construction times, mounting costs and rising mortgage rates. The average interest rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage was above 5% for all of July, having risen more than two percentage points since January.
This is a developing story and it will be updated.
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