Great news for builders like Pulte: New home sales soar in May
Analyzing May's housing starts, sales, prices, and permits (Part 4 of 5)
May new home sales, as reported by the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, increased 18.6% from April
New home sales increased to an annualized pace of 504,000—up 18.6% from April (which was revised down from an initial estimate of 433,000, to 425,000) but up 16.9% from a year ago. Activity rose in the Northeast, West, and South. The Midwest was flat. It’s important to understand that this number is an estimate, and these numbers are often revised several times. Investors should appreciate that these estimates can be volatile and shouldn’t read too much into any one specific number.
Restricted supply has been the theme of the U.S. housing market over the past year
At the end of May, there were 189,000 new homes for sale, representing a 4.5-month supply. The median time a new home has been on the market shrunk from nine months last summer to the current figure of five months. As professional investors have become major players in the real estate market, we’re seeing bidding wars for properties in the hardest-hit markets, like Phoenix, and even strong markets, like Washington, DC. For all the fears that a flood of properties would hit the market and drive down prices, the opposite problem has occurred.
Prices are rising as luxury outperforms entry-level homes
The median sale price for a new home was $282,000, and the average price was $319,200. These numbers aren’t based on a repeat sales methodology. So, you can’t project nationwide existing home prices from these figures. We’ve seen virtually every homebuilder report double-digit increases in average selling prices. The NAHB has reported that the average size of a new home has increased 300 square feet from 2009 to today. So, while prices are rising, part of that increase has been due to the product mix. That said, the report showed that the sweet spot for new home sales has been in the $200,000-to-$299,000 range. The builders with more exposure to the entry-level buyers are PulteGroup (PHM), D.R. Horton (DHI), and Lennar (LEN). The luxury segment is represented more by Toll Brothers (TOL). Investors who want to invest in the sector as a whole should look at the S&P SPDR Homebuilder ETF (XHB).
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