Sales of new US single-family homes rose 6.4% in August to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 684,000 units, the highest since December 2025, as buyers used price cuts and incentives; rising mortgage rates remain a drag on the market.
July’s sales rate was revised up to 643,000 from the previously reported 607,000. Despite the August monthly gain, sales were 2.0% lower than a year earlier, and the median new-home price fell 5.8% to $393,700. From July, sales rose 84.9% in the Midwest and 6.9% in the South, but fell 36.1% in the Northeast and 15.2% in the West.
The report said the US-Israeli war with Iran was driving up energy prices and longer-term Treasury yields, adding to mortgage rates. Freddie Mac put the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate at 6.95% last week, its highest since January 2025; rates had risen nearly 100 basis points since the war began at the end of February. New-home supply was 483,000, unchanged from July; at August’s sales pace, it represented 8.5 months of supply, down from 9.0, with more than half the homes under construction.
