Sales of new single-family homes in the U.S. fell to the lowest level in nearly two years in October, likely due to buyers being hesitant due to rising mortgage rates and activity disrupted by hurricanes. It will be done.
New home sales fell a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 17.3% to 610,000 units last month, the lowest level since December 2022, the Commerce Department's Census Bureau said Tuesday.
The sales pace for September was unchanged at 738,000 units.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected new home sales, which account for about 15% of U.S. home sales, to slow to 725,000 units.
The sales value of a new home is counted at the time the contract is signed and can change from month to month.
In October, sales decreased by 9.4% compared to the same month last year.
Mortgage rates reversed all the declines that had pushed them to 6.08% at the end of September, the lowest level in more than a year and a half, after the Federal Reserve began cutting interest rates.
The average interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage jumped to 6.72% by the end of October, tracking the rise in the 10-year Treasury yield. Yields rose after solid domestic data suggested the pace of interest rate cuts would slow. central bank.
Concerns about a resurgence in inflation have also strengthened the view that the rate cuts next year will be smaller.
President-elect Donald Trump announced Monday that on his first day in office, he would impose a 25% tariff on all products from Mexico and Canada, and an additional 10% tariff on products from China.
The average interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage last week was 6.84%.
In the densely populated southern region, new home sales are thought to have fallen by 27.7% due to the hurricane. Prices fell 9.0% in the West, rose 1.4% in the Midwest, and rose 53.3% in the Northeast.
The median price of a new home in October was $437,300, up 4.7% from the same month last year. The inventory of new homes rose to 481,000 from 471,000 in September, the highest level since early 2008.
At October's sales pace, it will take 9.5 months to run out of homes on the market, up from 7.7 months in September.
