New home sales pulled out a slight month-over-month gain in June only because estimates of sales in May were revised down.  The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development said today that sales of newly constructed homes were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 610,000 units.  This was an increase of 0.8 percent from the revised rate of 605,000 units in May, sales that were originally estimated at 610,000.  The June rate is 9.1 percent ahead of the 559,000-unit pace in June 2016.

Analysts had projected the June sales number over a wide range, from 590,000 to 630,000 units.  The consensus of those polled by Econoday was 611,000.

On a non-seasonally adjusted basis there were 55,000 homes sold during the month, compared to 57,000 in May and 50,000 a year earlier.

The median price of a home sold during the month was $310,800 and the average price was $379,500.  One year earlier the sales prices were $321,600 and 364,300 respectively.

At the end of the reporting period there were an estimated 275,000 new homes available for sale.  This is projected as a 5.4-month supply at the current rate of sale. Only 61,000 of that total are ready for occupancy; 160,000 are under construction.  All inventory numbers are given on a non-adjusted basis.  The median months for sale is 3.0, down from 4.0 at the same time in 2016.

Sales of new homes in the Northeast were unchanged from May at a seasonally adjusted rate of 41,000. This however was an increase of 41.4 percent from the previous June.  The Midwest saw an increase from May of 10.0 percent to 66,000 which was still down 12.0 percent year-over-year.  Sales dipped 6.1 percent in the South to 323,000, and were only fractionally higher, 0.9 percent, than in June 2016. The West gained 12.5 percent with a rate of 180,000 units. This was an annual increase of 33.3 percent.