New Residential Sales survey data provides statistics on the sales of new privately-owned single-family residential structures in the United States.

New residential sales estimates only include new single-family residential structures. Sales of multi-family units are excluded from these statistics.

The type of financing tabulated in this survey is the type reported at the time the original sales agreement was signed or deposit accepted. However, changes in the type of financing do occur between the original contract signing and final settlement. These changes are not reflected in the tables. For contractor-built and owner-built houses the type of financing is that reported at time of completion.

The FHA and VA type-of-financing data presented in this report tend to differ from those published directly by those agencies. For the actual number of FHA-insured and VA-guaranteed loans made for new houses at the time of final settlement, refer to the publications of the respective agencies. The data differ because of the difference in time periods between the signing of the original sales contract, the start of construction, and the insurance or guarantee of the mortgage, as well as the sampling variability in this survey.

Early in 1995, the Farmers Home Administration was reorganized. As part of this reorganization the Rural Housing Service now handles the mortgage functions formerly done by the Farmers Home Administration.

To be included in the sales estimates the sales transaction must intend to include both the house and the land. All new houses are not included in our new residential sales estimates, only houses sold prior to being built or built for sale are included in these statistics. Excluded from these estimates are houses built for rent, houses built by the owner, and houses built by a general contractor on the owner's land.