New Home Sales Rise 6.4% in August as Prices Cool
New single-family home sales hit a 684,000 annual rate in August 2026, up 6.4% from July, while median prices fell 5.8% year over year to $393,700.
- Section
- Construction
- Author
- By Grace Kim
- Filed
- Length
- 2 min read
Key takeaways
- New single-family house sales ran at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 684,000 in August 2026, up 6.4% from July's 643,000 and down 2.0% from August 2025's 698,000.
- Median sales price was $393,700, down 5.8% from $417,900 in August 2025; average sales price was $478,700, down 8.8% year over year.
- Inventory of 483,000 new homes represented an 8.5-month supply, down from 9.0 months in July and unchanged from August 2025.
Sales of new single-family houses ran at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 684,000 in August 2026, the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development reported jointly on September 24. That figure sits 6.4% above the July 2026 rate of 643,000 but 2.0% below the August 2025 rate of 698,000.
The gain points to a modest recovery in buyer activity after a slower summer, though the market remains weaker than it was a year ago.
Inventory Holds Steady
The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of August 2026 stood at 483,000 — virtually unchanged from the July 2026 estimate of 483,000 and 2.0% below the August 2025 estimate of 493,000.
At the current sales rate, that inventory represents a supply of 8.5 months. The months' supply fell 5.6% from the July 2026 estimate of 9.0 months. It remains virtually unchanged from the August 2025 estimate of 8.5 months.
Faster sales, not new construction, drove the drop in months' supply. Builders cleared homes off their books while total inventory held flat.
Prices Slip Year Over Year
The median sales price of new houses sold in August 2026 was $393,700. That marks a 0.4% increase from the July 2026 price of $392,200, but a 5.8% decline from the August 2025 price of $417,900.
The average sales price tells a steeper story. It came in at $478,700 for August 2026 — 9.1% below the July 2026 price of $526,400 and 8.8% below the August 2025 price of $525,100.
The sharper fall in the average price than in the median suggests fewer high-end transactions closed during the month, pulling the overall figure down while the typical sale price barely moved.
What It Means
Taken together, the numbers show a market where demand improved month over month at lower price points. Buyers closed more contracts in August than in July, and they did so at prices well below last year's levels. Builders, meanwhile, kept inventory in check rather than adding to it.
The gap between the annual rate of 684,000 and last year's 698,000 will be the figure to watch in the September release, which will indicate whether August's momentum carried into the fall.
Source: FloorDaily
