New home sales cool for third-straight month

Sales of new single-family houses in February 2018 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 618,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

This is 0.6% below the revised January rate of 622,000, but is 0.5% above the February 2017 estimate of 615,000.

Supply of homes at the current sales rate rose to 5.9 months, the highest since August.

The average sales price was $376,700 in February 2018.