The Commerce Department announced a decline of more than 10% to 619,000 real estate properties transferred, while analysts expected a drop to only 640,000.
Sales of new homes fell 11.3% in May in the United States, falling to their lowest level since November, a sharper fall than expected as mortgage rates started to rise again, but have since fallen again. .
Last month, 619,000 new real estate properties were sold, at an annualized rate – a figure projected over one year at this rate of sales -, according to data published Wednesday by the US Department of Commerce.
This represents a drop of 11.3% compared to April, whose data was nevertheless revised upwards, with 698,000 sales compared to 634,000 initially announced. The drop is 16.5% compared to May 2023.
It is also less than expected by analysts, who expected 640,000, according to the MarketWatch consensus.
“High mortgage rates and prices, also high, continue to have an impact on financial accessibility,” notes Rubeela Farooqi, chief economist for High Frequency Economics.
The median price of goods sold is down very slightly compared to April, at 417,400 dollars compared to 417,900 dollars. The average price, on the other hand, climbs to $520,000 compared to $503,700 the previous month.
In May, home loan interest rates were again above 7 percent for a 30-year fixed-rate loan, the most common, according to data from refinancing agency Freddie Mac. However, they have since fallen back below this bar, to 6.87% on June 20.
Rubeela Farooqi nevertheless specifies that “sales of new housing could experience support linked to the lack of supply of existing housing”.
The availability of goods on the market is indeed improving, with 481,000 goods on sale at the end of the month (compared to 474,000 at the end of April), or 9.3 months of sales at the current rate.
