Data Alert! A Dive into the Census Bureaus August New Residential Sales Report.
- Sales of new single-family houses in August were down by 24.3% from August last year to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 740,000 houses.
- Total inventory for sale, from not-started to completed houses, rose to 378,000, the most since October 2008, with a record of 95% of them either not started or still under construction.
- Almost no homes with a price of under $200,000 were sold. This category is completely priced out.
- Under-$300,000 homes 29% of total sales, down from 35% in August 2020 and down from 42% in August 2019.
- $300,000 to $400,000 homes 19% of total sales.
- Over-$400,000 homes 51% of sales, up from 31% in August 2020, with the over-$500,000 homes, which is where all the money is coming from keeping median prices up, accounting for 31% of sales.
Costs are also continuing to spike! Let's consider lumber for a moment:
At $652 per thousand board feet, prices are still 70% higher than in 2019! Notice the 'transitory' spike here? Cost never went back to 'pre-crazy' level and is now on the rise again.
This is happening all across the board with housing costs--steel is surging:
Polyvinyl Chloride futures (the stuff that makes PVC pipes) is up 65% over the last year:
Buckle up!
