New-home sales edged up 0.2 percent last month, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 467,000, the Commerce Department reported on Friday. The report also revised down the August sales rate to 466,000, from 504,000.
The pace of sales for newly built homes has improved a mere 1.7 percent so far this year compared with 2013. Only the South has experienced gains in buying year-to-date; purchases have fallen in the Northeast, Midwest and West.
Housing has struggled to fully rebound since the recession ended more than five years ago. Many potential buyers lack the savings and strong credit history needed to afford a home, causing them to rent or remain in their existing houses.
Construction and buyers of new homes have trickled back from the worst of the crisis, but new-home sales remain far below the annual rate of 700,000 during the 1990s.
Sales in the most expensive Western states declined in September, reversing some of the gains made in August. Because homes are pricier in the West, that pushed down the median price for a new home to $259,000, from $286,800 in the previous month.
Analysts noted that the new-home sales report from the government is notoriously volatile from month to month, yet sales have basically been stuck in place for the last few years
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“There is little evidence that the new single-family housing market is decisively breaking out of its medium-term flat pattern,” said Joshua Shapiro, chief United States economist at the forecasting firm MFR.
Though some of the financial pressures on home buyers are starting to ease, that is unlikely to do much to suddenly increase sales of new homes in the final months of this year.
Over the last two weeks, federal regulators have unveiled plans to loosen down-payment requirements, and mortgage rates have tumbled below 4 percent. Along with a slowdown in price growth, these factors could eventually help usher more buyers into the real estate market.
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