25 Oct New-Home Sales Surge: Is That Good or Bad for Buyers?
New-home sales are back. After a few months of drops in the number of buyers scooping up these abodes with that fresh, never-been-lived-in smell, sales are once again surging.
The number of buyers who closed on newly built residences spiked in September, according to a joint report by the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. They jumped 18.9% from August to September and were up 17% from September 2016.
(Realtor.com® looked only at the seasonally adjusted numbers in the report. These have been smoothed out over 12 months to account for seasonal fluctuations.)
That’s good news for buyers looking for a home of their very own at a time when there just aren’t enough properties on the market. There were 9% fewer homes on the market in September compared with a year ago, according to realtor.com data.
“Stronger new-home sales should encourage builders to keep building,” says realtor.com’s chief economist, Danielle Hale. This “should help increase the number of homes available for sale.”
Part of the bump may be due to buyers in areas ravaged by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma getting back into the market. It may be that their homes were damaged and they were able to get into new ones. Or, perhaps, these buyers waited until the storms passed and then assessed the damage before going ahead with the purchases.
The number of sales jumped in the South, rising 25.8% month over month and 23.1% year over year.
Read More Via Realtor.com
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