More evidence housing market weakening
The Habibi Group founder Roh Habibi on the shifting trend in the housing market.
Evidence continues to mount that potential homebuyers are being scared off by high home prices and rising mortgage rates.
New home sales ran at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 553,000 in September, according to the Commerce Department, the lowest clip since December 2016, and 13.2 percent lower than in September 2017.
Sales plunged in the Northeast, dropping 40.6 percent and in the West they fell 12 percent. Sales were resilient in the Midwest, where they increased by 6.9 percent.
The median sale price was $320,000, down 3.5 percent from September 2017.
New home sales have been falling steadily throughout the year and are now just 3.5 percent higher than they were in the same period last year, suggesting that high prices and increasing mortgage rates could finally be denting demand.
Sales of existing homes also fell in September. As previously reported by FOX Business, according to the National Association of Realtors, sales of existing homes fell 3.4 percent in September from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.15 million. Compared to September 2017, existing home sales declined 4.1 percent.