Sales of New Homes Explode Higher in August Panic Buying Spree

Americans went on a home buying spree in August while mortgage rates temporarily dipped, data from the Commerce Department indicated Tuesday.

New homes sales jumped 28.8 percent to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 685,000 in August, the Commerce Department said. The increase would have been even larger if not for the upward revision of the July figure from 511,000 to 532,000.

That is the third largest percentage increase in records going back to 1963. In June of 2020, home prices jumped 30.6 percent. In April of 1963, they were up 31.2 percent.

In July, new home sales fell 8.6 percent. That is a smaller decline than the 12.6 percent reported before revisions.

Compared with a year ago, new home sales are down 0.1 percent.

Analysts polled by Econoday had forecast new home sales to come in at 498,000 in August.

The median sales price of new homes sold in August was $436,800, down 6.3 percent from the record $466,300 in July

Mortgage rates dipped in July and August after rising rapidly in the first half of 2022. Buyers appear to have taken advantage of the temporary respite to buy new homes.

Robert Dietz, the chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders, described the August sales data as an “outlier.”