U.S. New Home Sales Surge Much More Than Expected In December

(RTTNews) - New home sales in the U.S. surged by much more than expected in the month of December, according to a report released by the Commerce Department on Monday.

The report said new home sales shot up by 3.6 percent to an annual rate of 698,000 in December after soaring by 9.6 percent to an upwardly revised ate of 674,000 in November.

Economists had expected new home sales to climb 0.9 percent to an annual rate of 670,000 from the 664,000 originally reported for the previous month.

The Commerce Department said an estimated 683,000 new homes were sold in 2024, up 2.5 percent from the 2023 figure of 666,000.

The sharp monthly increase by new home sales partly reflected a spike in sales in the Northeast, where new home sales skyrocketed by 41.7 percent.

New home sales in the West also jumped by 20.3 percent, while new home sales in the South and Midwest slumped by 2.1 percent and 3.3 percent, respectively.

The report also said the median sales price of new houses sold in December was $427,000, up 6.1 percent from $402,500 in November and up 2.1 percent from $418,300 a year ago.

The estimate of new houses for sale at the end of December was 494,000, which represents 8.5 months of supply at the current sales rate. The months of supply is down from 8.7 in November but up from 8.2 in December 2023.

A separate report released by the National Association of Realtors on Friday showed existing home sales in the U.S. jumped by much more than expected in the month of December.

NAR said existing home sales shot up by 2.2 percent to an annual rate of 4.24 million in December after surging by 4.7 percent to a rate of 4.15 million in November. Economists had expected existing home sales to rise by 1.0 percent to an annual rate of 4.19 million.

With the bigger than expected increase, existing home sales reached their highest level since hitting an annual rate of 4.38 million last February.