Elevated borrowing costs, rising inflation and broad economic uncertainty continue to curb buyer demand and hold back new home sales. Sales of newly built single-family homes declined 10.5% in July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 607,000, following a sharply upwardly revised June estimate, according to newly released data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau. The pace of new home sales was 6.3% lower than a year earlier.
“New home sales fell in July to their slowest pace since the start of the year as affordability challenges limited home buyer traffic,” says Bill Owens, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders and a home builder and remodeler from Worthington, Ohio. “NAHB surveys show that a majority of builders continue to offer sales incentives, including mortgage rate buydowns, to support new home sales.
“The single-family home building market is on track for a second consecutive annual decline in 2026,” says NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz. “New home sales are down more than 4% on a year-to-date basis. NAHB research and economic data show community builders continue to outperform the broader market, while the Northeast remains a relative bright spot, with new home sales up nearly 9% year-to-date.”
