May 2021 numbers just out of the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development support the notion that the we’re beginning to see a true slow down in the market.
Sales of new single‐family houses last month were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 769,000, according to estimates released jointly by the Census Bureau and HUD. That represents a 5.9 percent decline from April’s rate of 817,000, but is 9.2 percent above the May 2020 rate.
While 769K homes is no small number, it does mark the fourth consecutive month of falling sales numbers. It also is the lowest monthly rate in a year, when last May finished out with an estimated 704,000 sales.
At it’s peak, the Census Bureau found January 2021 to have the largest number of new home sales at 993,000!
Elsewhere in the report, the Census Bureau found the median sales price of new houses sold in May 2021 was $374,400. The average sales price was $430,600.
The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of May was 330,000. This represents a supply of 5.1 months at the current sales rate.