November New Home Sales: Inspiring Confidence

• November new home sales rose 1.3% from October and 16.9% from a year ago, to 719,000 (SAAR), according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
• The median sales price of new houses sold in November 2019 was $330,800, largely in the range of where it has been all year.
• Inventory (seasonally adjusted) was flat from October, with 323,000 new homes available to buy — down considerably from a year ago.

In a year that's been choppy at times, new home sales more than pulled their weight in the back half of 2019. Even though some of the starch from prior months’ strong initial data has been washed out through downward revisions, 2019 will go down as the best year for new home sales since before the Great Recession. There are other signals that should inspire confidence in the state of the housing market as a new decade approaches. Homebuilder optimism is at a two-decade high, driven by a growing sense that strong demand for new homes will persist. And construction levels have accelerated in recent months, blowing past expectations and reaching 12-year highs in both starts and permits at different times in the last three months. Notable headwinds remain, but steady construction rates and new home sales volume should continue to boost the housing market into the New Year.

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