American new home sales go down for second straight month

In January, sales of new American single-family houses went down for a second straight month, suppressed by abrupt dives in the Northeast and also South that could power worries of a slowdown in the housing market.

On Monday, the Commerce Department told that new home sales headed south 7.8% to a seasonally updated annual rate of 593,000 units the previous month, which is the lowest outcome since August the previous year. Additionally, December's sales tempo was updated up to 643,000 units versus the previously posted 625,000 ones.

Market experts surveyed by Reuters had predicted new home sales that account for approximately 10% of the housing market, edging up to a tempo of up to 645,000 units the previous month.

In the Northeast market sales went down 33.3% and descended 14.2% in the South that accounts for the bulk of fresh home sales. In the West they tacked on 1% and added 15.4% in the Midwest.

As a matter of fact, new home sales are actually drawn from permits. They are used to being volatile on a month-to-month basis. From 2017 they sank 1%. The emerged on the heels of the previous week’s data disclosing that in January sales of previously owned homes went down for a second straight month in the face of record low housing inventory.

Home sales are being tamed by a tough shortage of homes, in particular on the lower end of the market, which is backing prices as well as sidelining some first-time purchasers.

Soaring mortgage rates could make purchasing a home even more costly, especially if wage surge doesn’t step up at all. As for annual wage surge, it has been stuck below 3% notwithstanding the unemployment rate having sunk to a 17-year minimum of 4.1%.