New home sales fall in March
Even in light of historic low mortgage rates new home sales have been for the third month in a row. March figures which were just reported, show that new home sales were down 1.5% according to the Commerce Department’s report.
Home sales fall
The rate of new home sales as steadily dropped since January 2016. The Commerce Department’s report also showed a huge sales dropped for new home sales in the West. The West showed a drop of 23.6% in March. The only good news in this report as far as new home sales go was the fact that on a year to date pace compared to 2015, we are slightly ahead in the number of sales this year.
Even in light of these declining sales figures some economists are predicting that today’s low mortgage rates and improving job market should boost sales of new homes in the coming months.
New home sales for March in the Northeast were basically flat and rose slightly in the Midwest and southern region. Nationally the new home median sales price fell 1.8% from a year ago to $288,000.
Now, the story for existing home sales is quite different from that of the new home sales picture. The national Association of realtors reported last week that sales of existing homes rose 5.1% in March which was a rebound after a drop in February.
Most attribute the rise in existing home sales to a lack of inventory. The number of existing home listings has dropped approximately 1.5% in the past 12 months!
Freddie Mac reported that last week the average 30 year fixed rate home mortgage was at 3.59%.
If you’d like to read further about the March new home sales I’d suggest you click here to see the Reuters story.
