Savings accounts of home buyers are finally getting much relief : The prices of brand new homes continued to drop last month.
The median sticker price for newly constructed homes was $278,800 in January, down 4.5% from a year earlier and 5.7% from December, according to a recent report from the U.S. Department of Commerce. This was a result of builders offering more affordable entry-level homes. Realtor.com’s chief economist, Jonathon Smoke states, “To see growth in the new home market, we will have to see more offerings to appeal to the first-time buyer.”
The more affordable homes are a departure from the bigger is better and expensive is extraordinary model that developers had moved to in recent years as they targeted the luxury market. But the cost for new homes are still substantially higher than those for existing homes, which had a median price of $213,800 in January, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Despite the cheaper residences, sales of newly built, single family houses, at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $94,000 dropped 5.4% in January from a year earlier, according to the Commerce report. They were down 9.2% in December. January is also the slowest month of the year of new home sales – just not in the South. It is completely normal to see the South have the largest numbers, as the demand is strongest there due to the underlying population and household growth, but also more access to land that can be developed.
More and more clients want newly constructed homes. A lot of people are sick of going for pre-owned homes and being stuck in multiple bid situations. With new homes, aspiring owners can simply stroll into the builder’s office and sign on the dotted line. Buyers can also customize their new abodes by choosing their favorite cabinet colors, types of tiling and even which carpet to lay down in their living room. Maintenance costs are also typically lower on recently erected homes – because everything is brand new.
