New Home Sales, Home Prices Rise

New home sales posted a 5.7 percent gain in September, the Census Bureau reported today, contributing to an annual increase of 27.1 percent over the September 2011 level.

The Census Bureau estimates that sales of newly built single-family homes were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 389,000 units in September. That compares to a revised rate of 368,000 in August and 308,000 in September 2011.

Sales showed their strongest gains in the Northeast and South, with monthly increases of 16.7 percent and 16.8 percent, respectively. On an annual basis, sales in the Northeast showed a very strong 75 percent gain over their September 2011 level, while sales in the South rose by 24.3 percent over the same period.

Meanwhile, new home sales in the Midwest suffered a big drop in September, falling by 37.3 percent for the month, undoing what had been a year of small gains and producing a 31.9 percent annual decline.

The West region of the nation has seen strong growth in new home sales over the past year, with a 61.3 percent annual increase, although only a 3.9 percent gain in Florida.

Home prices rising

Meanwhile, the newest figures from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) indicate that overall home prices rose for a sixth consecutive month in August, increasing a seasonally adjusted 0.7 percent. That contributed to an annual increase of 4.7 percent over August 2011 levels, according to the FHFA figures released today.

Nationally, home prices remain 15.9 percent below their peak reached in April 2007 and are roughly at the same level they were in April 2004, according to the FHFA’s Home Price Index.

The strongest price gains over the previous 12 months were seen in the Mountain and Pacific census regions of the country, with annual increases of 11.4 percent and 8.1 percent, respectively. The weakest price gains were in the Middle Atlantic and New England regions, with annual increases of 0.4 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively, as of August.

The FHFA Home Price Index is based on purchases prices of home bought with mortgages guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

First published on MortgageLoan.com at: http://www.mortgageloan.com/new-home-sales-home-prices-rise-9275