New home sales fell 8.7% from July to August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 675,000, according to a report on Tuesday from the Census Bureau. The reading comes amid persistently higher mortgage rates, which are dampening the market.Sales in July were 5.8% higher than in August 2022."New home sales were weaker than expected in August, although sales for July were revised higher," said Nancy Vanden Houten, lead U.S. economist at Oxford Economics.
As of Tuesday, the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has soared to 7.49%, according to Mortgage News Daily. The last time rates were this high was more than two decades ago. Because mortgage rates have increased so much, owners of existing homes who have mortgages with rates locked in at those low pandemic levels are putting off selling because they want to keep their historically low rates. That means less existing home inventory on the market, making new homes more of a hot commodity.
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