New Home Sales Surge in March: Lower Prices & Mortgage Rates

There was also a strong push last month for homes that sold for less than $300,000, as well as for those that sold in the $300,000 to $399,000 variety, according to Joel Berner, senior economist at Realtor.com.

March Home Sales Surge

New home sales went to a seasonally readjusted yearly rate of 724,000 in March, the greatest rate because September 2024. Last month’s sales were up 7.4% compared to February and 6% compared to March 2024, according to the united state Demographics Bureau.

Regardless of the economic unpredictability that existed also before the White House announced brand-new tariffs in early April, buyers appeared to make use of last month’s reduced mortgage prices by grabbing new– and smaller sized– homes.

Falling New Home Prices

New home costs proceed dropping: The average brand-new home sales price last month was $403,600, a 1.9% decrease from February and a 7.5% decrease from one year previously. March’s median price was “well below” that of 3 years earlier, noted National Organization of Realtors Principal Financial Expert Lawerence Yun, a change that suggests contractors are focusing on smaller sized homes.

“This outcome is a little bit surprising, given the ruin and gloom data presently surrounding most of the housing market, yet it is additionally a continuation of the trend we have seen in new-home sales in current months, in which cheaper homes are driving sales task,” Berner wrote in an April 23 article.

Impact of Mortgage Rates

Mortgage rates hovered around 6.6% in March, the most affordable in 3 months. Prices have actually varied since the April 2 tariff announcements, with Mortgage News Daily estimating on April 22 that the 30-year fixed-rate home mortgage was 6.98%.