New-home sales dip 0.6% in February

WASHINGTON — Sales of new U.S. homes slipped 0.6 percent in February, a third straight monthly decline. But year to date, sales are up 2.2 percent compared with 2017 in a sign that buyer demand remains solid.

The Commerce Department said Friday that last month’s sales came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 618,000, down from 622,000 in January and 653,000 in December.

Homebuyers at the start of the spring purchase season are generally finding higher prices and fewer properties available. Those factors, along with rising mortgage rates, have suggested that homeownership is becoming less affordable. The shortage of existing homes on the market is intensifying competition among would-be buyers of newly built houses.

But buyers seem undeterred so far about the lack of available homes, given the low unemployment rate and wave of younger millennials who are entering the real estate market.

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