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January saw relatively little change in the number of new home sales from December, according to data released today from HUD and the U.S. Census Bureau on new residential home sales in January; however, sales are on the rise from last year.
According to the report, homes sold at an estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate of 481,000 in January. Home sales dropped a slight 0.2 percent from the revised December estimate of 482,000, but still grew 5.2 percent from the January estimate of 457,000 homes sold.
Regionally, the Northeast had the least number of homes sold at 15,000 and decreased 51.6 percent from the December sales of 31,000. While the South had the most home sales of any region with 278,000, an increase of 2.2 percent from the previous sale of 272,000 homes in December.
"On the analysis side as to why the month-over-month figures may have declined. I’m quite certain there’s a significant 'seasonality' effect at work here,” said Brian Sullivan, public affairs supervisor at HUD. "Practically all of New England was buried under multiple snow storms and we normally see sales decline in the winter months as a general rule."
The median sales price for homes sold in January was $239,300 and the average sales price was $348,300. Most homes were sold between the range of $200,000 and $299,000, while there was a slight increase in $150,000 to $199,999, a number that shows a slight uptake in the number of first-time buyers who usually tend to buy homes at a lower cost.
According to Sullivan, this increase in first-time buyers can’t yet be attributed to any federal programs, but could mark a trend due to a new reduction announced by the Federal Housing Administration.
"FHA announced a reduction in the annual mortgage insurance premiums new borrowers will pay," he said. "We very much believe this will have an impact on the number of new, first-time buyers entering the market, but since this premium reduction just took effect, we can’t attribute any year-over-year growth in sales to that."
