By NAHB
Elevated mortgage rates that averaged 7.62% in October per Freddie Mac, the highest rate since 2000, depressed buyer demand and pushed down new home sales in October.
Sales of newly built, single-family homes in October fell 5.6% to a 679,000 seasonally adjusted annual rate, following a notable downward revision in September, according to newly released data by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau. The pace of new home sales in October was up 17.7% from a year ago.
“New home sales fell back in October as interest rates moved higher,” said Alicia Huey, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a custom home builder and developer from Birmingham, Ala. “Despite the challenging conditions, sales are up 4.6% on a year-to-date basis due to a lack of inventory in the resale market.”
