U.S. New Home Sales Fell 1.7% in August
21 September 2017 - 12:30AM
Dow Jones News
By Josh Mitchell
WASHINGTON--Sales of previously owned homes fell in August to
the lowest level in a year, reflecting a shortage of homes on the
market and a slowdown in the Houston area because of Hurricane
Harvey.
Existing-home sales fell 1.7% from a month earlier to a
seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.35 million, the National
Association of Realtors said Wednesday. Economists surveyed by The
Wall Street Journal expected a rate of 5.45 million sales in
August.
Sales have risen just 0.2% over the past year.
A sharp drop in home sales in Houston, which was racked by
Hurricane Harvey last month, accounted for most of the overall
decline in home sales, NAR economist Lawrence Yun said. He
estimated overall sales would have been flat from the prior month
without the hurricane effects.
But Mr. Yun said broader factors are weighing on the market.
Inventory remains tight--in part because of lackluster home
construction--and that has contributed to a run-up in home prices,
pricing out potential buyers. The median price of homes sold last
month reached $253,500 in August, up 5.6% from a year earlier.
That's more than double the growth in Americans' incomes.
At the current sales pace, it would take 4.2 months to exhaust
the supply of homes on the market. That's down from 4.5 months a
year ago.
Mr. Yun projected that sales for all of 2017 will fall compared
to 2016, largely because of hurricanes Harvey and Irma, which have
slowed home sales in the south. But he said he expects sales to
rise in 2018 as those markets rebound.
Write to Josh Mitchell at joshua.mitchell@wsj.com and Sharon
Nunn at sharon.nunn@wsj.com.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 20, 2017 10:15 ET (14:15 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.