Builders sold new single-family homes at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 676,000 in September, the Census Bureau and HUD said Oct. 27. That’s 0.6% below August’s 680,000 and 5.3% below September 2025’s 714,000. The more useful number for anyone building spec homes sits further down the report: finished, unsold inventory fell to 111,000 houses, down from 122,000 a year earlier.
Builders are working off what they’ve already built. They aren’t adding much new.
New home sales by region and price
The South, which accounts for most new-home sales, ran at 413,000, down 6.6% from August and 0.7% from a year ago. The West fell 17.4% from a year earlier to 142,000 while gaining 21.4% from August. The Northeast and Midwest moved by double digits too, but their samples are small enough that Census’s own confidence ranges swallow the change. The national monthly move isn’t statistically significant either: its 90% confidence interval runs plus or minus 13.8%.
Prices are softer than they were a year ago. The median sale price was $400,400, up 3.9% from August’s $385,400 but down 3.9% from $416,800 in September 2025. The average price fell 6.7% year over year to $472,800, according to the Census release. Homes over $1 million were just 4% of September sales, down from 6% a year earlier.
Year to date, builders have sold an estimated 506,000 homes, 2.9% fewer than at this point in 2025. The West is down 9.2%.
Spec inventory and months’ supply
Total new homes for sale came in at 476,000 seasonally adjusted, or 8.4 months of supply at the current pace. That’s barely changed from 8.2 months a year ago. The mix underneath it has shifted, though.
Completed homes for sale dropped to 111,000 from 128,000 in January. Homes under construction and for sale fell to 250,000 from 262,000 a year earlier. Homes not yet started rose to 115,000, up from 103,000 in September 2025. Not-started homes counted as for sale are generally lots and plans being marketed before a builder commits to framing, so the shift points to builders taking orders first and building second.
That fits what builders have been saying. In October NAHB’s confidence index fell to 29, its lowest since 2012, and 43% of builders reported cutting prices, Exchange reported. Price cuts and incentives move finished spec homes. They don’t justify new starts.
What the new-home sales report means for trades
For framers, roofers and MEP subs who live on production housing, fewer homes under construction means fewer units on the schedule, regardless of how sales hold up. Single-family starts have been slipping all fall, as Exchange’s September housing starts coverage showed.
The October sales report is due Nov. 25. If completed inventory keeps falling while not-started listings keep rising, builders will be holding a lot of plans and very few slabs heading into 2027.