Looking to buy a newly built home? Good luck finding one.
House hunters looking to purchase a newly constructed home may face thin masonry this spring.
Construction companies built just under 70,000 new homes nationwide in April. According to To the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. While that’s more than double what they built a year ago, it doesn’t even come close. lack of 6.5 million single-family units facing Americans today.
The reduction comes at a time when America finds itself in a housing crisis, with many people Homeowners choose not to put the property on the market. For fear of taking out a second home mortgage at high interest rates. This trend has contributed to a shortage of existing housing available to potential buyers.
“The lack of existing inventory helped sales of newly constructed, single-family homes in April,” said Alicia Huey, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a custom home builder in Alabama. said In a statement this week. “Even more encouraging, we are seeing an increase in sales in the more affordable price ranges of $200,000 to $400,000.”
The median sales price of new homes rose to $420,800 in April, according to the Fed. Data.
According to the Fed, the number of new home completions peaked in 2007, when builders churned out more than 170,000 units per month. That number has steadily declined over the past decade to around 70,000 units or less this year.
NAHB said the decline in new home completions is due to a shortage of skilled construction workers and supply chain issues. Builders are having trouble getting distribution transformers — the piece of electrical equipment that sends power from the utility line to the house.
Economists said sales fell this year due to fewer homes on the market. Pending home sales fell 20 percent in April from a year ago, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Reported. And while it’s not the only reason for the dip, it’s an important factor.
“Affordability challenges certainly remain and will continue to hold back contract signatures,” NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yoon said Thursday. “But a significant increase in the housing inventory will be important to move more Americans.”