The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development reported Wednesday morning that sales of new homes in November rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 490,000. That was an increase of 4.3% from the downwardly revised October rate of 470,000 and an increase of 9.1% compared with the November 2014 rate of 449,000. The consensus estimate from a survey of economists expected a rate of around 503,000.
The revision to the October rate dropped 25,000 from the month’s total. At the peak in 2005, new home sales posted a seasonally adjusted annual rate of nearly 1.4 million.
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The Census Bureau also reported that the median sales price for new homes sold in November rose by more than $23,000 from $281,500 in October to $305,000, and the average sales price rose by nearly $9,000 to $374,900. At the end of November, the number of new homes for sale totaled 232,000 and represented a supply of 5.7 months at the current sales rate.
In November, 49% of the estimated 34,000 monthly sales were for homes priced at less than $300,000. The percentage is five points lower than the October report. Sales of homes priced between $300,000 and $399,999 stayed flat at 21% of all sales. Sales of homes in the range of $400,000 to $499,999 rose from 11% of all sales to 14%, and sales rose from 8% to 9% for homes sold in a range of $500,000 to $749,999. Home sales for properties priced above $750,000 fell by a percentage point and accounted for 6% of all new home sales in November.
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