U.S. New Home Sales Rise in December

The sales of new single-family houses in the United States registered a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 842,000 during December 2020, initial data jointly-released by the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development showed on Thursday.

The reading indicates a 1.6% rise compared with the revised November rate of 829,000.

On an annual level, new home sales increased by 15.2% last month compared with the December 2019 estimate of 731,000.

An estimated 811,000 new homes were sold in 2020, rising by 18.8% compared with the 2019 level of 683,000.

In addition, data showed that the median sales price of new houses sold in December 2020 was $355,900, while the average sales price stood at $394,900.

The seasonally-adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of December was 302,000, representing a supply of 4.3 months at the current sales rate.