Sales of new homes were up 1.8% nationwide in February, but the Northeast had the weakest sales activity of any region, according to data released Tuesday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
February sales of new single-family houses in the U.S. were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 676,000, according to the government’s preliminary estimates. This is above the revised January rate of 664,000 and is 5.1% above the 643,000 sold in February 2024.
Most of the 676,000 new home sales last month occurred in the South (438,000), West (140,000) and Midwest (76,000) regions of the United States. In the Northeast, only 22,000 new homes were sold, which is a 48.8% decline from a year ago in February 2024.
The median price of new houses sold nationwide in February 2025 was $414,500. The average sales price was $487,100. The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of February was 500,000. This represents a supply of 8.9 months at the current sales rate.
Last week, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released its report on sales of existing homes which, like new home sales, showed slower sales activity in the Northeast.
In February, existing home sales – completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – increased nationwide by 4.2% from January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.26 million, NAR said. Year-over-year, nationwide sales slid 1.2% (down from 4.31 million in February 2024).
NAR said sales of existing homes in February the Northeast decreased 2.0% from January to an annual rate of 500,000, but that is up 4.2% from February 2024. The median price for an existing home in the Northeast was $464,300, a 10.4% increase from one year earlier.
Nationwide, the median price of an existing home (all housing types) in February was $398,400, up 3.8% from one year ago ($383,800).
According to Freddie Mac, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.67% as of March 20. That rate is up from 6.65% one week ago but down from 6.87% one year ago.
