With recent headlines that new-home sales rose 11% nationally in June over the previous month’s numbers, Big Builder Online surveyed readers for their take on what these numbers mean.
The majority of respondents?63.6%?said they don’t think June’s new-home sales numbers signal a true market turnaround for the home building industry. Only 13.6% of respondents said they think the numbers signal a turnaround, while the remaining 22.7% said they were unsure. One respondent said June’s numbers were just “a blip.” Another respondent noted that “horrible previous quarter numbers make any increase look better.”
Almost half of the respondents?45.5%?said they saw increased sales in their communities in June over May. However, 45.5% of respondents said sales remained the same, and 9.1% said they saw decreased sales in June.Half of the respondents attributed the uptick in June to a combination of the federal first-time home buyer tax credit, lower mortgage rates, and decreased sales prices for new homes, while 27.3% said the boost was due to decreased sales prices and 13.6% said the tax credit was behind it.
One respondent noted, “As soon as this tax credit goes away, so do the sales, in my opinion. And we’ll be back to square one, like we were last year/beginning of this year.”
