Briefing.com: New Home Sales

Updated: 24-Sep-25 10:25 ET

August New Home Sales

Updated: 24-Sep-25 10:25 ET

Highlights

New home sales surged 20.5% month-over-month in August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 800,000 units (Briefing.com consensus 650,000) -- the strongest pace since January 2022-- from an upwardly revised 664,000 (from 652,000) in July.
On a year-over-year basis, new home sales were up 15.4%.

Key Factors

The median sales price increased 1.9% yr/yr to $413,500, while the average sales price increased 12.3% yr/yr to $534,100.
New home sales month-over-month/year-over-year by region: Northeast (+72.2%/+40.9%); Midwest (+12.7%/+20.3%); South (+24.7%/+21.0%); and West (+5.6%; -5.7%).
At the current sales pace, the supply of new homes for sale stood at 7.4 months, versus 9.0 months in July and 8.2 months in the year-ago period.
The percentage of new homes sold for $399,000 or less accounted for 49% of new homes sold versus 52% in July. Homes priced between $400,000 and $799,000 accounted for 42% of new homes sold versus 42% in July. New homes priced at $800,000 or over accounted for 9% of sales in August versus 5% in July.

Big Picture

The key takeaway from the report is that the surge in new home sales occurred ahead of the larger drop in mortgage rates seen in September. Notably, there was a big uptick in the percentage of new homes sold over $800,000. That helps explain the large jump in average selling prices, and it may also be reflective of the large jump in stock prices lending some confidence to buying interest in the upper price brackets.