One-Third of Houses For Sale Are Newly Built, Just Shy of the Record High
About one-third (33.4%) of single-family homes for sale in the United States in the first quarter were newly built. This is essentially unchanged from a year earlier but down from a record-high 34.5% reported two years earlier. The portion of housing supply that’s newly built remains roughly double pre-pandemic levels.
Newly built homes taking up an outsized portion of inventory since the pandemic homebuying boom has sent builders into overdrive. And according to Redfin, there are two main reasons for this:
- Homebuilding has shot up. Construction of U.S. homes soared at the start of the pandemic, with builders responding to sky-high homebuying demand brought on by remote work and rock-bottom mortgage rates, and single-family housing starts are still sitting at significantly higher levels than pre-2020.
- The supply of existing homes for sale has dropped. Homeowners are staying put because mortgage rates hit a two-decade high last year, and they’re still elevated far above pre-pandemic and pandemic levels. Many would-be sellers are opting to hang onto their low rate instead of moving and taking on a new one.
