Sales of newly built single-family homes held close to August’s pace in September, running at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 676,000, according to new residential sales estimates released Oct. 27, 2026 by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. That is 0.6% below the revised August rate of 680,000 β a month that registered a 2026 high when first reported β and 5.3% below the 714,000 pace of September 2025.
The bigger shift was in the price of what sold. The average new home went for $472,800, down 6.7% from $506,800 a year earlier β one of the few changes in the report that is statistically significant under the Census Bureau’s own test. Builders also ended the month with fewer homes on the market, and the stock of finished, unsold houses continued to shrink.
New home sales: the September numbers
- Sales: 676,000 annual rate, down 0.6% from August and 5.3% from September 2025. Neither change is statistically significant; the agency’s 90% confidence intervals are Β±13.8% and Β±12.5%.
- Inventory: 476,000 new homes for sale at the end of September, down 1.0% from 481,000 in August and 2.3% from 487,000 a year earlier.
- Months’ supply: 8.4 months at the current sales rate, versus 8.5 in August and 8.2 a year ago.
- Median price: $400,400, up 3.9% from August’s $385,400 but down 3.9% from $416,800 in September 2025.
- Average price: $472,800, up 0.4% from August and down 6.7% year over year.
The monthly inventory decline is small, but it is the one month-over-month move in the headline figures that clears the Census Bureau’s significance test (Β±0.9%). The agency cautions that it takes four months to establish a trend in new home sales and that the preliminary national sales estimate is revised by about 6.7% on average.
The inventory of finished homes keeps thinning
The detailed tables show where builders’ supply sits. Of the 476,000 homes for sale, 111,000 were completed, 250,000 were under construction and 115,000 had not been started. A year earlier, completed homes for sale numbered 122,000, so the finished-and-waiting inventory is down about 9%, while the not-started category is up from 103,000.
Completed homes are now sitting somewhat longer, though. The median time a finished new home had been on the market since completion was 3.0 months in September, compared with 2.4 months a year earlier, according to the not seasonally adjusted figures.
Sales of homes that had not yet been started ran at an 82,000 annual rate in September, up from 65,000 in August β a sign that some buyers were still willing to sign contracts on homes yet to be built.
A tilt toward cheaper homes
The price distribution helps explain the lower average. Homes priced under $400,000 accounted for 51% of September sales (20% under $300,000 and 31% between $300,000 and $399,999), compared with 46% in September 2025. Homes at $1 million and above made up 4% of sales, down from 6% a year earlier. Because the Census Bureau’s price figures reflect the mix of homes sold as well as price changes on comparable homes, a shift toward smaller or less expensive product pulls the averages down even if builders did not cut prices on any given house.
They did cut, however. In the October NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, released Oct. 19, 43% of builders reported reducing prices β the highest share of the 2020-2026 period, according to the National Association of Home Builders β and 65% used sales incentives. Builder confidence fell to 29, its lowest reading since June 2012, as RealtyWire reported at the time.
Regional picture: West and Northeast up, South and Midwest down
On a seasonally adjusted basis, September sales rose 28.0% in the Northeast, to a 32,000 annual rate, and 21.4% in the West, to 142,000. They fell 6.6% in the South, to 413,000, and 7.3% in the Midwest, to 89,000. Regional estimates in this survey carry wide margins of error β none of these monthly changes is statistically significant β and the year-over-year view is less flattering for the West, where sales were 17.4% below September 2025.
The South, which accounts for roughly six of every ten new homes sold, was down just 0.7% from a year earlier. Through the first nine months of 2026, an estimated 506,000 new homes have sold, 2.9% fewer than the 521,000 in the same period of 2025.
Rates and the calendar ahead
The September contracts were signed as borrowing costs climbed. Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey put the average 30-year fixed rate at 7.32% for the week of Oct. 22, after it reached 7.40% earlier in the month; a year earlier it was 6.19%. Public builders have described the same strain in their quarterly results: PulteGroup reported orders down in five of its six regions in the third quarter.
On our reading, the September report describes a market that is not collapsing but is clearing through price and product mix: unit sales roughly flat, a lower-priced mix of homes, and builders working down finished inventory rather than adding to it. The Federal Open Market Committee concludes its two-day meeting on Oct. 28. The Census Bureau’s October new home sales report is scheduled for Nov. 25, 2026.
More coverage of builders and new construction is in RealtyWire’s Housing Market section.
