Even with a slight increase in the amount of new home sales in December, the housing market as a whole remains with low demand as well as low affordability. According to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), newly built, single-family homes saw a 2.3% increase during December, bringing the annual rate to 616,000. The data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau show that new home sales were down 16.4% last year compared to 2021.

 

"Builder incentives and declining mortgage rates during the month of December helped push new home sales up for the month," said Jerry Konter, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder and developer from Savannah, Ga. "However, because of higher construction costs and decreasing affordability, sales are down more than 25% compared to a year ago."

https://www.nahb.org/news-and-economics/press-releases/2023/01/new-home-sales-inch-higher-in-december-but-market-weakness-remains