Year over year, January’s seasonally adjusted annual sales rate rose 5.3%, compared with 457,000 a year ago. On an unadjusted basis, 2014 sales totaled an estimated 435,000 homes, up 1.2% from 429,000 in 2013 and the highest total since 2008.
At the peak in 2005, new home sales posted a seasonally adjusted annual rate of nearly 1.4 million.
The Census Bureau also reported that the median sales price for new homes sold in January rose from $268,100 in December to $294,300, and the average sales price slipped from $377,800 to $348,300. At the end of January, the number of new homes for sale slipped from 219,000 in December to 218,000, a supply of 5.4 months at the current sales rate.
In January, 53% of the estimated 36,000 monthly sales were for homes priced at less than $300,000. The rise in January’s median sales price is due to more sales of more expensive homes, including a jump of two points in homes sold in the range of $400,000 to $499,999 and by the same amount in homes sold for $500,000 to $749,999. Sales of homes priced above $750,000 slipped three points in January to 4% of all homes sold in the month.
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