New Home Sales headed up 2.3% in December. They’re still down from a year ago but the recent trend has been positive—nationally, sales activity has been rising for the past three months in a row. More good news: the supply of completed homes has risen rapidly. There is now a 9.0 months’ supply of new homes for sale, a significant increase from the 3.3 months’ supply early in the pandemic. Also encouraging, the Pending Home Sales index of signed contracts on existing homes rose for the first time since last May. The NAR observed, “recent declines in rates are clearly helping to stabilize the market.” |